The origins of marble (marble history)

The origin of the term marble (from the greek "marmairon" = to shine) immediately show its peculiar characteristic, that special light that is synonymous with elegance and refinement.

Since humanity has been involved in more complex and structured activities, i.e. since with the Neolithic age we began talking about "age of polished stone", men began to be interested in this "shining" material. The oldest use of marble has a purely decorative purpose.

The artists of the Cycladic islands, especially Paro and Nasso, were specialists of marble. Between the fourth and third millennium BC they carved this material, locally abundantly available, to enrich their graves. Their human and divine figures, stylized but strict and impeccable, anticipate the forms of ancient Greek sculptures.
Greek art used a lot marble both in sculpture and architecture to give immortality to its more representative creations.
The most used marble was the precious Pentelic marble whose name comes from the homonymous mount near Athens. Moreover it was the raw material used for the main buildings of the Acropolis of Athens: Eritreo, Propyl and Parthenon. It was the nature of this marble that allowed to obtain an exceptionally smooth finish and a great perfection in putting together pieces such as in the Parthenon.
As we know, the Greeks preferred using the trilith system instead of arches and domes.

The explanation, besides a clear aesthetic factor, has to be found mainly in building material and, in particular, in the very possibility of obtaining long trabeations thanks to that excellent stone: the Pentelic marble. The Greeks worked big marble blocks. The use of cutting marble in slabs (crustae) instead has an Eastern origin: here, in the fourth century BC, marble slabs began to be use for coating the walls of royal buildings.

In Rome marble had different uses depending on different periods. If initially it was mainly used as a structural element, later on, when this function was absorbed by bricks, marble became essentially a coating material. Nevertheless today there are still buildings with marble structure. Later, during the Late Empire, the stone got a more and more wide consensus for its potential use as a decorative element. The refinement of marble, with its naturally rich veins and a spreading sense of perfection, decorated floors and walls. The most precious marbles were processed, according to the classical Greek culture, in a way with a strong aesthetic value. The most significant example of this is given by the triumphal arches and commemorative columns, sculptural and architectural elements and that are true propulsors of urban qualification. The nineteen marble blocks of the Column of Trajan, made of the precious Greek pario marble, reach 35 meters to celebrate the great deeds of Roman people.

During the imperial age, "the luxury of stones" was very fashionable and marbles showed their beautiful everywhere. There was a large use of coloured marbles from different places and when this was not enough anymore the practice to looting tombs and monuments to deprive them of their marble started. With the barbarian invasions things changed and other materials were preferred to marble. The Romanesque art, instead, with his renewed love for classicism, rekindled the passion for marble as a symbol of continuity between the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. The art of fifteen century in Italy would not be the same without the imposing facades covered with marble and their inlays.

From that moment onward all the Italian art is closely connected with marble: the Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals, the pulpits of Giovanni and Nicola Pisano, the sculptures of Michelangelo, the baroque works by Bernini. The raw material, under the skilled hands of the sculptor, takes shape, gets round, obeys to art requirement, goes beyond the ephemeral, ennobles and delivers to memory the fruit of human work. Before being reflected outside, the light penetrates the surface, give to it all its purity and exalt the skill of the artist.

Since the end of the XVI century and even more between the XVII and the XVIII century, marble was used especially in interior decoration without giving up to embellish our city. The rapid growth of other materials, in the XIX and especially in the XX century, has made marble structures rarer and rarer but the expressive capacities of marble, better than any other material, are the reason why many architects still preferred it for their works. The excellent qualities of marble, such as weight, hardness, resistance to fire and atmospheric agents, allowed the creation of solid buildings still there for all to see after centuries.

Marble geology

Marble is a crystalline rock, compact and susceptible to polishing, used for buildings and decorative purposes. It consists of semi-hard minerals belonging to 3 or 4 class on the MOHS scale (calcite, dolomite, serpentine)...
--> READ IT

  Marble samples

--> Perlatino di Sicilia

--> Giallo Cleopatra

--> Palissandro oniciato

--> Perlato di Sicilia

--> Red Energy

--> Travertino

--> Feiruze

--> More marble

News

26-04-2011 NOVITA': STALATTITI dalle nostre cave!!!

As far as the economy of the whole region is concerned, the extraction of marble in the province of Trapani occupies an important position. After Carrara, this is the biggest marble basin of the Italian territory.
...--> CONTINUA