Marble is a living material that offers multiple possibilities for use and changes in appearance depending on how it is employed. Extremely versatile, marble has always found widespread use in architecture in Italy, leading over time to advanced technological innovation in its processing.
Art Sculpted in Stone
Marble is widely used in sculpture. Great artists like Michelangelo, Bernini, Donatello, and Canova chose this stone for their most important statues.
Sculptors favor this material mainly because, when freshly quarried, it is relatively soft and therefore easy to work with, although it becomes very hard and dense over time. The most prized marbles for sculpture are white ones, as they are purer and more durable, with a low refractive index. This allows light to penetrate the stone before being reflected, giving marble a wax-like appearance that resembles human skin in statues.
Colored marble, on the other hand, with its polished finish and varied veins and tones, is ideal for decorative purposes. However, in history, especially in ancient times, it was not the shine of this stone that captivated the Greeks and Romans.
The abundance of marble use in ancient statuary was mainly due to the fact that marble was plentiful in Greece and its islands, making it easy to transport and work with. Greek sculptors became highly specialized in this material. For example, the Greeks and Romans would often paint their statues. Though it’s hard for us to imagine, ancient statues were never left white but were always painted to achieve a more lifelike appearance.
Over the centuries, however, these statues, either buried in the ground or exposed to the elements, lost their colors. By the time they were rediscovered, they appeared in the natural color of marble, white, as we see them today.
Marble: Building Empires in Stone
The word “marble” comes from the Greek “marmaros,” meaning “shining stone.” With its glossy and luminous appearance, this natural stone fascinated the ancient Greeks and Romans, and even earlier, the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia. They chose it to build their most important structures, both for its beauty and its durability over time. In short, the history of marble began thousands of years ago, when ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt recognized its value as the ideal stone for supporting grand public buildings and constructing the columns of religious temples.
The Pantheon in Rome and the Parthenon in Athens are just two examples of the most important buildings in human history constructed from marble. White marble, considered the most refined due to its homogeneity and lack of impurities, was mainly extracted from the Luni quarries in Carrara, which, since Roman times, was the largest center of marble trade. Among colored marbles, the most precious were imported from Egypt, Tunisia, Persia, Anatolia, and the Pyrenees.
Boundless Versatility in Modern Architecture
From antiquity to today, marble has been used in construction and is highly valued in interior design, particularly in modern architecture, for the way it reflects light, appearing clear, translucent, and wax-like. Humans have always used marble as a fundamental material in the very concept of building, symbolizing the connection between human and nature in all its aspects.
Anything clad in marble can bring great brightness to its surroundings, as well as a sense of elegance. When modern architecture seeks to add a touch of refinement, marble is the perfect choice due to its classical appeal combined with the light effects typical of modern style. In architecture, marble, in its timelessness, unites the past and the future.
Source: www.marmomac.com
