An Unpublished Female Marble Statue in the Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria.

Chiara Savettieri, "Il avait retrouvé le secret de Pygmalion" : Girodet, Canova and the illusion of life ; This paper intends to highlight the relationship between the French painter Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson and the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova. The works by Girodet in which one can distinguish connections with the sculptor are the Endymion and Pygmalion and Galatea. In the former, one can observe various similarities with the aesthetics of Canova : these are particularly recognizable in the staging of the light in order to reproduce the smooth texture of flesh and in a conception of beauty particular to Winckelmann, which, by its "indeterminate" nature, appears androgynous and ephebic. Following the wishes of its patron, that is to say Sommariva, the Pygmalion was to constitute a tribute to Canova who was able to breathe life and the illusion of movement to his marble statues. In this painting, it is possible to distinguish precisely both the similarity but also the contrast with the sculptor. On the one hand, Girodet, like Canova, believes that art is composed of a significant intellectual element, which bathes the works in a cool sheen, far removed from the fervent spontaneity of Canova's marble statues. However, if one looks closer, it appears that this intellectualism stems from a deep mise en abyme of the values on which the neoclassical aesthetics was based : a crisis that appears extremely clearly in the numerous texts written by the painter throughout his life.

A host of deleterious factors can impact the aging and integrity of historical monuments and statues. These may include natural causes such as water, wind, and temperature variation as well as the even more detrimental human causes of industrial pollution, urban warming, and fossil fuel emissions from vehicles all of which contribute to the development of acid precipitation. In addition, where the use of fossil fuels is wide-spread the occurrence of acid precipitation tends to be more prevalent and as a result serious damage can occur to the natural environment. Acid precipitation causes irreparable damage to vegetation, wildlife, and fish populations in lakes, streams, and rivers. Also, damage caused by acid precipitation can be quite recognizable on historical monuments and statues constructed from carbonate-based stone. The stone derived from carbonate sources such as limestone, dolomite, and marble have been widely used for thousands of years in the construction of monuments and statues. Carbonate-based stone was often chosen because of its abundance, suitability for shaping, and robust quality. Many historic works of art which not only characterize a period of art but also create powerful images of the artist and artwork have survived for thousands of years. The emergence of acid precipitation though has caused irreparable damage and destruction to many of these irreplaceable works of art, monuments, and statues. In this study, the research focuses on better understanding of acid precipitation and its impact on items of cultural heritage such as historical monuments and statues. Sample cases were chosen to emphasize and evaluate deleterious impact which may have occurred to these items of cultural heritage. According to research evaluation results from this study the researcher has provided recommendations for resolving the impacts of acid precipitation on these historical monuments and statues. Keywords: fossil fuels, acid precipitation, historical artefacts, marble statues.
 Keywords: fossil fuels, acid precipitation, historical artefacts, marble statues.

The aim of this study is to assign the provenance of Roman marble statues and assess their condition in order to use this information as a guideline for their future conservation treatments. Several analytical methods were applied to investigate the provenance of the statues including petrography, X-ray diffraction, and mass spectrometry. The deterioration level of the statues was assessed by non-destructive ultrasonic velocity measurements. The provenance investigation showed that four statues were most probably made of the dolomitic marble quarried from Thasos Island, Greece and one statue was made of the Proconnesus marble quarried from Marmara Island, Turkey. The condition assessment study revealed that the statutes are still in a good condition, although they exhibit weathering in the form of increasing porosity. Consequently, suitable conservation measures and recommendations for preserving the marble statues and preventing future damage were proposed. In general, the ultrasonic technique proved to be effective for assessing marble condition and identifying and prioritizing required conservation work in a fast, reliable, and non-destructive way.

Insight on bacteria communities in outdoor bronze and marble artefacts in a changing environment

Introduction The paper describes the complex investigations carried out to understand the sources of the brown chromatic changes that have occurred on ten marble statues dated back to the first half of the 15th century and now located in the Church of Orsanmichele in Florence, Italy. When the statues were removed from the outdoor niches for restoration in the 1980s, they appeared covered with a dark brown patina (called ‘bronzatura’) that dated to interventions occurred just after 1789. Archival documents confirmed that they had been carried out to make the marble statues look like bronzes. Because of the removal of the dark patina carried out by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in the 1990s, the marble almost regained its distinguishing clear tonality even if darker areas remained. After the statues were placed indoors at the end of restoration, brownish discolorations started to appear on their surfaces. Results Research began by using various non-invasive analyses (photographs under ultraviolet illumination, fluorescence lifetime imaging, x-ray fluorescence). The results of UV fluorescence tests and FLIM showed that the fluorescence emission’s distribution map does not have distinctive and homogeneous characteristics in relation to the areas with the discoloration. Therefore, it is not a superficial film, but rather a phenomenon affecting the marble structure. Then we performed invasive analyses on samples from some statues. The results of optical microscopy, ATR-FTIR and Raman spectroscopy on cross sections, pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry on powdered samples from the surfaces and/or the bulk of the marble allowed the identification of the various substances involved in the chromatic alteration. Most important was the detection of weddellite and gypsum on the surface and within the marble. This finding, combined with the presence of lipids inside the stone, suggests that mineralization of treatments have occurred, causing discolorations. Conclusions Even though the study focuses on the statues from Orsanmichele, their issue nevertheless should not be considered specific to them. Marble discolorations are a widespread phenomenon whose complete understanding needs a complex series of analyses and only the combination of non-invasive and invasive analyses can fulfill this goal.

‘Titles’, says Margaret Laurence, ‘are important, as they should in some way express the theme of the book in a rather poetic way.’1 The title which she chose for her first Canadian novel certainly fits her definition. Solid and ethereal, opaque and spiritual, The Stone Angel confronts the reader with a challenge that is felt all the more clearly because of the oxymoronic quality of the phrase. Announcing the new — the text to come — it also resonates with the old: Thomas Wolfe’s lyrical novel, Look Homeward Angel and Milton’s line. Hardly have we had time to puzzle about it, however, when the narration blocks our flight of imagination by presenting us with a fictional referent for the title. ‘Above the town, on the hill brow, the stone angel used to stand. …’2 As the opening paragraphs describe the monument and the cemetery where, blind and superlative, it used to rise, the reader is taken on a tour of Manawaka’s burial ground — and of the novel’s major semantic polarities. We are in a sense reassured: so that is what the title refers to — this marble statue ‘brought from Italy at great expense’, erected in memory of the narrator—protagonist’s mother.

Literary history's persistent attempts to locate the work of Joseph von Eichendorff within German Romanticism aim at a stabilization that contradicts the very dynamism associated with this movement. A study of Eichendorff's exemplary novella Das Marmorbild (The Marble Statue) reveals the shortcomings of any interpretive desire to fix the text, not simply because the story delights in Romantic instability but because it posits phenomena of music and their effects as forces that frustrate every effort to localize. What Eichendorff presents to the reader is itself a “marble statue”—a Bild or image that both seduces and invites, inspires and imprisons, by means of epistemological and moral ambivalences that resonate far beyond the text's localizable source.

Carbonatogenic bacteria on the ‘Motya Charioteer’ sculpture

Brightly colored stains on the white marble at the Tea pavilion and marble statues in Renaissance style trigger a scientific investigation to determine their origin. Staining and alteration of white marble in El Montazah site have been studied by using different microscopic techniques, polarizing microscope (PLM), reflected light microscope, light microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Moreover, several samples have been examined by X-ray powder diffraction, Energy Dispersive X-ray analyses (EDX), FTIR spectroscopy and biological analysis. The results indicated that different factors contribute to form stains on white marble. In the Tea pavilion at El Montazah site, staining can essentially be attributed to the alteration of pyrite. Microbial deterioration, black stains and the reactions between the organic matters with the alkali solutions have a dominant influence in the discoloration and staining of marble statues at El Montazah site. Also, FTIR in the brownish areas from the marble statues confirmed the presence of Paraloid B-72. Probably a part of marble staining was caused by the alteration of Paraloid B-72, which was used in the past to consolidate or as an adhesive to preserve the marble.

As a supplement to the description and discussion of the Temple itself, a few words must be added as to the movable antiquities found upon its site. This is a section that we might have hoped to prove rich in treasures and full of interest. But all such hopes were destined to be disappointed, from what reason it is not now easy to discover. At Tochni, at Cyprus, is a well, into which tradition says St. Helena cast all the devils in the island; does this mean that the statues of ‘heathen gods’ were thrown in it? Perhaps at Paphos too, some zealous iconoclast may have similarly striven to abolish all the sacred objects of ancient worship—or perhaps mere considerations of gain or utility may have led to a most complete destruction. So we might easily account for the disappearance of all bronze statues: stories of the discovery of such linger about the neighbourhood. But it is harder to account for the vanishing of all the marble statues that probably were once here. We can hardly suppose that the absence of suitable marble in the island can have led to the exclusive use of bronze except for small works: offerings were brought to Paphos from all quarters of the ancient world. And if any marble statues ever existed, we should expect to find portions of them built into houses and walls, even if they were mostly reduced to lime. Why should inscriptions have been so much more fortunate? The preponderant use of bronze, shown by the bases, may serve in part as an explanation, but it seems necessary also to assume some general destruction of statues such as would probably have taken place if the worship were forcibly suppressed. The sacred cone itself has totally disappeared.

One of the largest single collections of outdoor sculpture and monuments in the United States is found at Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania (GETT). GETT receives relatively acidic rainfall, as the median pH is 4.2, and rain events with pH as low as 3.5 are not uncommon. The apparently accelerating deterioration of bronze and marble monuments and statuary has become an important National Park Service management concern. To assess the present status of monument deterioration and its relationship to airborne pollutants and rainfall acidity, a research project was conducted from mid-1986 through 1988. Field measurements of the deterioration of weathered bronze plaques and marble obelisks which have been in place ca. 100 years have been made. The rate of mass loss during rain events from the surface of several selected bronze and marble monuments was measured by comparison of incident rain chemistry with runoff composition. At the same time, meteorological, air quality, and precipitation data were collected. The material deterioration rates are interpreted in relation to parameters of environmental conditions and wet and dry pollutant deposition on an event basis. The total surface averaged recession rate on bronze plaques is estimated to be on the order of 0.3 mm / 100 yr. The magnitude of this estimate agrees reasonably well with the observed condition of the monuments, where a general "softening" of surface relief features is apparent, but no extreme deterioration has as yet appeared. Carbonate stone surfaces react sufficiently with incident rain water during most events to buffer the runoff water at a near-constant average pH of 5.2. In contrast, runoff from the bronze surfaces has a only a slightly higher pH than the incident rain. The effects of antecedent deposition of aerosols and gases on the composition of runoff water and its pH was found to be variable in magnitude and direction, underscoring the importance of dry deposition in the materials effects process.

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The 20th-century beginnings of modern underwater archaeology were unheralded but auspicious. In 1900 a Greek sponge boat, heading toward its home port of Symi, was caught in a storm and sheltered in the lee of tiny Antikythera Island, midway between Greece and Crete. Taking advantage of the stop, a helmeted diver dove to look for more sponges and found instead a seafloor littered with bronze and marble statuary. As proof of what he had found, the diver hoisted a bronze arm to the surface to show his captain, Demetrios Kondos (Bass, 1966). Kondos sailed home to Symi and asked others what should be done about the find, and it was decided to inform the Greek government. Enlisting the Greek Navy, the government organized an expedition to raise the statues; Director of Antiquities George Byzantinos directed operations from the surface (Muckelroy, 1998).

The Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum buried during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79, then rediscovered in 1750 contained a large collection of bronze and marble statuary and busts. Before they were published or exhibited, the sculptures were restored so as to appear whole: it is thus that they helped to shape early modern tastes in classical sculpture. Scholars have sought to assign names to the individual busts and statues and to discover a unified, planned sculptural program for the decoration of the Villa dei Papiri. Here, however, more objective questions are asked: Are the bronzes uniform enough in production technique and alloy or marble source to justify the notion of a single sculptural program? Did the owner of the Villa purchase the statues from one or from several sources?

Our knowledge of the scientific and technological activity of the ancients is based mostly on the written testimony of the ancients themselves. The physical (as opposed to textual) evidence for the scientific activity of the Greeks is meager, for delicate scientific instruments tend not to survive. Objects preserved from antiquity tend to be made of relatively indestructible stuff: building stone, ceramics, marble statuary. Thus, it should come as no surprise that the corpus of some 250 Greek and Roman sundials, found at sites all over the Mediterranean, constitutes the great bulk of the physical evidence for the place of astronomy in classical civilization.1