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

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

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

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 Historical documents testify that the sculpture was a property of the cadet branch of noble Tuscan family of the Medici, the Medici of Ottaviano.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 languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Cultural Heritage
Volume15
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)414-423
Number of pages10
ISSN1296-2074
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

    Research areas

  • Italian cultural heritage, Marble sculpture, Multi-methodological approach, Provenance

ID: 131025841