The history of the "Virgin with Child" sculpture (Ottaviano, Naples, southern Italy): hypotheses from archaeometric multi-technique investigations

Giuseppina Balassone; Maria Toscano; Giancarlo Cavazzini; Alberto De Bonis; Loredana D'Orazio; Michael Joachimski; Høgni Weihe; Walter Prochaska; Nicola Mondillo; Angela Mormone; Carmela Petti; Antonia Solpietro

doi:10.1016/j.culher.2013.09.002

The history of the "Virgin with Child" sculpture (Ottaviano, Naples, southern Italy): hypotheses from archaeometric multi-technique investigations

Giuseppina Balassone^*, Maria Toscano, Giancarlo Cavazzini, Alberto De Bonis, Loredana D'Orazio, Michael Joachimski, Høgni Weihe, Walter Prochaska, Nicola Mondillo, Angela Mormone, Carmela Petti, Antonia Solpietro

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Chemistry

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A life-size whitish marble statue of a "Virgin with Child" has been recently rediscovered in the St.Rosario church located in Ottaviano, a small town near Naples (southern Italy). This artwork shows stylistic features of the Tuscan-Roman school of the 16th century, and is framed in an intriguing historical context. Historical documents testify that the sculpture was a property of the cadet branch of noble Tuscan family of the Medici, the Medici of Ottaviano. A multianalytical approach has been used to try to indicate the supply area of the white marble of the studied sculpture. Considering the whole mineralogical, petrographic and geochemical data, the source rock can be possibly limited to the main classical white marbles of the Mediterranean district, as the classical marble of Aphrodisias. A reuse practice of a former artwork can be also hypothesized.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of Cultural Heritage
Volume	15
Issue number	4
Pages (from-to)	414-423
Number of pages	10
ISSN	1296-2074
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2013.09.002
Publication status	Published - 2014

Keywords

Italian cultural heritage
Marble sculpture
Multi-methodological approach
Provenance

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10.1016/j.culher.2013.09.002

Cite this

Balassone, G., Toscano, M., Cavazzini, G., Bonis, A. D., D'Orazio, L., Joachimski, M., Weihe, H., Prochaska, W., Mondillo, N., Mormone, A., Petti, C., & Solpietro, A. (2014). The history of the "Virgin with Child" sculpture (Ottaviano, Naples, southern Italy): hypotheses from archaeometric multi-technique investigations. Journal of Cultural Heritage, 15(4), 414-423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2013.09.002

The history of the "Virgin with Child" sculpture (Ottaviano, Naples, southern Italy) : hypotheses from archaeometric multi-technique investigations. / Balassone, Giuseppina; Toscano, Maria; Cavazzini, Giancarlo et al.

In: Journal of Cultural Heritage, Vol. 15, No. 4, 2014, p. 414-423.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Balassone, G, Toscano, M, Cavazzini, G, Bonis, AD, D'Orazio, L, Joachimski, M, Weihe, H, Prochaska, W, Mondillo, N, Mormone, A, Petti, C & Solpietro, A 2014, 'The history of the "Virgin with Child" sculpture (Ottaviano, Naples, southern Italy): hypotheses from archaeometric multi-technique investigations', Journal of Cultural Heritage, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 414-423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2013.09.002

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AU - Cavazzini, Giancarlo

AU - Bonis, Alberto De

AU - D'Orazio, Loredana

AU - Joachimski, Michael

AU - Weihe, Høgni

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AB - A life-size whitish marble statue of a "Virgin with Child" has been recently rediscovered in the St.Rosario church located in Ottaviano, a small town near Naples (southern Italy). This artwork shows stylistic features of the Tuscan-Roman school of the 16th century, and is framed in an intriguing historical context. Historical documents testify that the sculpture was a property of the cadet branch of noble Tuscan family of the Medici, the Medici of Ottaviano. A multianalytical approach has been used to try to indicate the supply area of the white marble of the studied sculpture. Considering the whole mineralogical, petrographic and geochemical data, the source rock can be possibly limited to the main classical white marbles of the Mediterranean district, as the classical marble of Aphrodisias. A reuse practice of a former artwork can be also hypothesized.

KW - Italian cultural heritage

KW - Marble sculpture

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KW - Provenance

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The history of the "Virgin with Child" sculpture (Ottaviano, Naples, southern Italy): hypotheses from archaeometric multi-technique investigations

Abstract

Keywords

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