§ 9 Of Statuary Marbles
From the same quarries52 were taken other marbles free from veins, but of the same colour, out of which were carved the noblest statues. These marbles were of a very fine grain and consistency, and they were continually being made use of by all who carved capitals and other architectural ornaments. The blocks available for sculpture were of great size as appears in the Colossi of Montecavallo at Rome,53 in the Nile54 of the Belvedere and in all the most famous and noble statues. Apart from the question of the marble, one can recognize these to be Greek from the fashion of the head, the arrangement of the hair, and from the nose, which from its juncture with the eyebrows down to the nostril is somewhat square.55 This marble is worked with ordinary tools and with drills, and is polished with pumice stone, with chalk from Tripoli, and with leather and wisps of straw.
In the mountains of Carrara in the Carfagnana,56 near to the heights of Luni, there are many varieties of marble, some black,57 some verging towards grey, some mingled with red and others again with grey veins.58 These form an outer crust over the white marbles, and they take those colours, because they are not refined, but rather are smitten by time, water and the soil. Again, there are other sorts of marble, called ‘cipollini,’59 ‘saligni,’ ‘campanini’ and ‘mischiati.’60 The most abundant kind is pure white and milky in tone; it is easy to work and quite perfect for carving into figures. Enormous blocks lie there ready to be quarried, and in our own days, pieces measuring nine braccia have been hewn out for colossal statues. Two of these colossi have recently been sculptured, each from a single block. The one is Michelagnolo’s ‘David,’ which is at the entrance of the Ducal Palace in Florence;61 the other is the ‘Hercules and Cacus’ from the hand of Bandinello standing at the other side of the same entrance. Another block of nine braccia in length was taken out of the quarry a few years ago, in order that the same Baccio Bandinello should carve a figure of Neptune for the fountain which the Duke is having erected on the piazza. But, Bandinello being dead, it has since been given to Ammannato, an excellent sculptor, for him likewise to carve a Neptune out of it.62 But of all these marbles, that of the quarry named Polvaccio,63 in the place of that name, has the fewest blemishes and veins and is free from those knots and nuts which very often occur in an extended surface of marble—occasioning no little difficulty to the worker, and spoiling the statues even when they are finished. From the quarries of Seravezza, near to Pietrasanta, there have been taken out a set of columns, all of the same height, destined for the façade of San Lorenzo at Florence, which is now sketched out in front of the door of that church;64 one of these columns is to be seen there, the rest remain, some in the quarry, some at the seashore.
A, B, Models of Tools used in Egypt at the present day for working hard stones. C, The pick referred to by Vasari, p. 41. D, A burin or graver. E-J, Tools in actual use in a stone-cutter’s yard at Settignano:
E, Subbia, a point. F, Calcagnuolo, a toothed chisel. G, Gradina, a broader toothed chisel. H, Scarpello, a chisel. J, Trapano, a drill.
But returning to the quarries of Pietrasanta,65 I say that they were the quarries in which all the ancients worked, and no other marbles but these were used for their statues by those masters, who were so excellent. While the masses were being hewn out, they were always at work, blocking out figures in the rough on the stones while they were still in the quarry. The remains of many of these can be seen even yet in that place.66 This same marble, then, the moderns of to-day use for their statues, not only in Italy, but in France, England, Spain and Portugal, as can be seen to-day in the tomb executed in Naples by Giovanni da Nola, the excellent sculptor, for Don Pietro di Toledo, viceroy of that kingdom, to whom all the marbles were presented, and sent to Naples by Duke Cosimo de’ Medici.67 This kind of marble has in itself larger available pieces and is more yielding and softer to work and receives a finer polish than any other marble. It is true that occasionally the workman meets with flaws called by the sculptors ‘smerigli’ (emery veins) which usually cause the tools to break. The blocks are first roughed into shape, by a tool called ‘subbia’ (point)68 which is pointed like a stake in facets, and is heavier or lighter as the case may be. At the next stage are used chisels, named ‘calcagnuoli’ (toothed chisels), which have a notch in the middle of the edge of the blade; after that finer and finer tools with more teeth are used to score the marble, after which it is smoothed with another chisel called ‘gradina,’ (broader toothed chisel) used to reduce and refine the figures. The tooth marks left in the marble are removed with iron rasps straight and curved, and thus at last, by polishing gradually with pumice stone the surface aimed at is attained. In order not to fracture the marble, all the drill-holes are made with drills of different sizes weighing from twelve pounds each even to twenty, according to the size of the hole needed,69 and they serve to finish every sort of work and to bring it to perfection.
Of certain white marbles, streaked with grey,70 sculptors and architects make ornaments for doors and columns for houses and the same are used also for pavements and for facings of large buildings, and for all sorts of things. All the marbles called ‘mischiati’71 are used for the same purposes.