marbled
A BUTCHER'S #42
A BUTCHER’S hook/look (Cockney rhyming slang)
around
Without even going into the above and beyond skill levels of the likes of Michelangelo and Bernini, what can be accomplished with marble is incredible. The Romans learnt it from the Greeks and the surviving pieces are still pretty impressive! This piece was ‘just another’ Roman statue I noticed left outside until they can decide what to do with it.
marbling
There’s marble everywhere you look in Rome but when I read that there was an exhibition of 600+ different marbles from all over the Roman Empire, I had to go.
The Romans had a whole mix of different types of rocks classified as marble, that geologists since have split into numerous different groups. Without getting into a whole thing of which marble comes from where, simplified there are really two main catagories: marble and breccia - what’s the difference?
Breccia is made up of bits and pieces of other rocks and minerals that are bonded with a matrix of smaller particles and a mineral cement, which means that how it looks is determined on what the original rocks were like - with endless combinations and unlimited variety. It’s the multi colored one.
revealed
Interesting (for me anyway) was to see what the marble (breccia) looks like as found, before being polished, as you can see from the sides of these pieces from Greece.
Marble is a type of rock that forms when limestone is altered through heat and pressure over a very long time. It is made mostly of crystals of carbonate minerals and does not have layers like some other rocks. Prized by artists and architects, this was the preferred material to use on sacred and state buildings - that classic slightly translucent white that glows.
sourcing
The Carrara (formerly Luna, hence Luna marble) quarries became the favorite source for the best quality marble for the Romans, after Greece.
Another mind-boggling photo by Edward Burtynsky taken in 2016
of course there is…
body marbling (click to see)
reality check
Considering how much real marble there is Rome, it’s a little surprising when you start noticing how much painted marble there is, especially in the churches and basilicas.
way to go
the conceptual approach, Roman style - a marble wicker basket sarcophagus.
mortadella
and other marbled cold cuts - prosciutto ears, a pancetta tail, salami legs and nose, standing in field of pancetta rotellato, this piggy has black olive eyes and is ready to go
