XVI. Baptistries, Pisa

XVI. Baptistries, Pisa

i. 5-1/2”h.,1880’s, carved alabaster ii.10-1/2”h., 1870’s, carved alabaster, paint over gilded paint base iii. 12”h., 1890’s, carved alabaster with glass dome

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Neither Roman, nor a ruin, the material of these Pisan architectural memento –alabaster quarried in nearby Volterra – was in use with models in Rome, Florence, Pisa, and elsewhere by the third quarter of the 19th century. When we think of Italian alabaster, what may come to mind is the soft, granular, bright white stone from which souvenir knick-knacks were crudely carved into the 20th century. In fact, the Volterran quarries, first set to use by the Etruscans twenty-five centuries ago, offered a wide range of colored alabasters. One mid-19th century catalog lists forty different types.

These highly-detailed, intricately carved models of Pisa’s 14th century

i.

These highly-detailed, intricately carved models of Pisa’s 14th century Baptistry, are assembled from several different varieties of alabaster –a highly translucent yellow veined stone; grey; and white. Often with alabaster pieces from this period, souvenir sellers sought the rich patina of ancient Roman marbles, though rendered in this far less costly material. Towards this, they devised an unusual finish, “An artificial polish is given by the application with a woolen cloth of a paste compounded of bone dust and common soap,” notes Stone Magazine (1895).

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