A pair of triptychs featuring antique marble samples

These two highly decorative triptychs feature 94 samples of antique marble, presumably collected by the same collector in the early 20th century from archaeological sites in Rome and Lazio. Their great diversity is a fascinating testimony to the splendor of interior decoration in buildings constructed during the imperial era. A meticulous study of these samples has enabled us to identify 31 different types of marble, all used in Roman times, and quarried in the most remote parts of the Empire...

...adeo, ut iure sit gloriatus marmoream se relinquere (urbem), quam latericiam accepisset.
...in such a way that he could justifiably boast of leaving (the City) in marble, having received it in bricks.
Suetonius, Augustus XXVIII

1. The use of marble in Rome, from imperial Rome to the souvenirs of the Grand Tour

This famous phrase attributed by Suetonius to the emperor Augustus (63 BC - 14) in the long chapter he devotes to him in The Lives of the twelve Caesars sums up the immoderate taste developed during the reign of Augustus for the use of marble in imperial buildings in Rome.
Vitruvius and Pliny trace the use of marble for building decoration back to the palace of Mausoleus (d. 353 BC), built at Halicarnassus. Pliny adds that Menander (Satrap of Caria at the end of the fourth century BC) was the first to introduce the use of colored marbles for wall and floor coverings in his palace. Pliny also reports Varron's testimony that Mamurra, Caesar's prefectus fabrum in Gaul, was the first to clad the walls of his house in Rome in marble.

Marble had in fact begun to be used for public buildings in Rome as early as the second half of the second century BC; at the same time, coloured marbles began to appear for paving. The discovery of Egyptian palaces, whose walls were adorned with porphyry and agate and whose floors were made of onyx according to Lucan's description, is reported to have amazed Caesar. The reign of Augustus saw the development of marble construction thanks to the influx of craftsmen from the Hellenistic world, although Suetonius' statement appears to be an exaggeration of the number of buildings constructed in marble during Augustus’ reign.

Suetonius also indicates (Tiberius XLIX) that, in 17 A.D., under the reign of Tiberius, marble quarrying became largely, if not entirely, an imperial monopoly, which did not, however, exclude the sale of some of the marble arriving in Rome for private use, as the use of marble had become a symbol of political and social prestige. The conquest of Egypt in the first century A.D. made it possible to rule the local granite and red porphyry quarries; of all the coloured "marbles", the latter was considered the most precious . This taste for marble cladding also led to the development of "substitute marbles" : marbles of lesser quality, which were not extracted from quarries reserved for imperial use, but which could also be found in antique buildings constructed in Rome by private individuals, or used for constructions carried out in the many Roman provinces.

While ancient marbles - columns, capitals and even pieces of pavement used by the famous "Cosmati" workshops - were used in the construction of Roman churches as early as the High Middle Ages, it was only in the 18th century that a taste for knowledge and precise identification of the different types of ancient marble developed. This led to the publication in 1717 of the Metallotheca Vaticana, the first catalog of the Vatican's collections of stone specimens, which until then had remained in manuscript form.

Collections of marble specimens as varied as possible became fashionable, such as the one put together by Giovan Battista Aufreddi from 1749 for Cardinal Casanatta, which included small oval marble samples presented in a gilded cardboard framing under which the nomenclature of each sample was precisely inscribed. This collection is now housed in the Natural History Department of the Leonardo da Vinci Technical Institute in Rome.

Excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii have also unearthed numerous antique specimens, which are often presented, sometimes mixed with Sicilian jasper, in geometric compositions produced in Neapolitan hardstone workshops and intended to adorn the tops of neo-classical consoles.

The collection we are presenting, probably assembled between the very end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, represents the swan song of this taste for antique marbles, since it was assembled at a time when it was still possible to collect them freely from archaeological sites. Unlike the montages produced a century earlier, in which all the stones were cut and polished to form a compact mosaic, the various specimens presented here have all retained their individual identities and are presented as they were found, simply cleaned and waxed.

2. Marble identification

The identification we have carried out is based mainly on Gabriele Borghini's book Marmi Antichi , from which we have also drawn extensively for the first part.

In order to reconcile this identification with the two triptychs, we have indicated on two photographs included in the gallery the numbers corresponding to each marble variety as described in our list. For each marble identified in this list, the number indicated between brackets after the Latin or Italian name is the number of the marble in this reference book. Wherever possible, we have also indicated the English usual name. Finally, we've indicated the provenance, using the indications given in Marmi Antichi.

Here is the list of the 31 types of marble we have identified:

1. Lapis Lacedaemonis (121) - Green Porphyry from Greece (also sometimes called serpentine) – Provenance : Krokees (Greece)
2. Marmor taenarium (126) - Rosso antico – Provenance : Cape Matapan (Greece)
3. Marmor luculleum (1) - Africano – Provenance : Teos (Turkey)
4. Breccia bruna oolitica o nummulitica (19) – Provenance : Asia Minor
5. Brocatellone (53) – Provenance : Asia Minor
6. Brocatello (52) - Brocatelle – Provenance : Tortosa (Spain)
7. Lapis hecatontalithos (48) - Egyptian green breccia – Provenance : Uadi Hammâmât (Mons Basanites) - Egypt
8. Marmor phrygium, synnadicum or docimenium (109) - Pavonazetto – Provenance : Iscehisar (Turkey)
9. Breccia corallina giallastra (23) - Provenance unknown
10. Breccia nuvolata gialla (29) – Provenance : Algeria
11. Breccia corallina (22) - Coral breccia – Provenance : Asia Minor
12. Alabastro a pecorella minuto (10) – Provenance : Aïn Tekbalet (Algeria)
13. Marmor chalcidicum (63) - Peach blossom – Provenance : Chalkidiki (Greece)
14. Cipollino (57) - Griotte from Campan – Provenance : Campan (France)
15. Porphyrites (116) - Red porphyry – Provenance : Djebel Dokhan (Egypt)
16. Marmor numidicum (65) - Giallo antico – Provenance : Chemtou (Tunisia)
17. Breccia gialla (26) - Yellow breccia - Various origins
18. Lumachella pavonazza (90) – Provenance : Austrian Alps
19. Granito bianco e nero (67) White and black granite – Provenance : Uadi Bûrûd, Egyptian desert (Egypt)
20. Breccia dorata (24) - Golden breccia – Provenance : Apuan Alps
21. Bigio Antico (16) - Origin: Asia Minor
22. Marmor celticum (14) - Grand Antique – Provenance : Aubert (France)
23. Breccia pavonazza sfrangiata di Santa Maria degli Angeli (34) - Provenance unknown
24. Ophytes (80) - Green granite from the siege of San Lorenzo – Provenance : Uadi Semna (Mons Ophyates) - Egyptian Eastern Desert
25. Porfido serpentino nero (118) – Provenance : Uadi Umm Towat - Egyptian Eastern Desert
26. Terracotta
27. Alabastro del Gebel Oust (6) Alabaster from Djebel Oust – Provenance : Djebel Oust - Tunisia
28. Alabastro fiorito (5) Flowered alabaster – Provenance : Asia Minor
29. Porfido nero (114) Black porphyry – Provenance : Djebel Dokhan (Mons Porphyrites) - Egypt
30. Alabastro a pecorella (9) – Provenance : Aïn Tekbalet - Algeria
31. Lumachellone antico (93) – Provenance : Eastern Alps
32. Breccia pavonazza bruna o del Suffragio (31) - Provenance unknown

This list illustrates the diversity of origins of the marbles used in Rome during the imperial era: Greece and Turkey, Asia Minor (10); Egypt (6), North Africa (4), France (2), Spain (1) etc. It's quite moving to think of the considerable efforts expended in bringing such a wide variety of marbles to Rome, and to put into perspective both the prosaic and miraculous nature of this collection, assembled almost two millennia later ...