- Title: Michelangelo's unrealized marble dream comes true in Italian quarry
- Date: 2nd August 2017
- Summary: QUERCETA DI SERAVEZZA, ITALY (RECENT) (REUTERS) AERIAL FOOTAGE FILMED WITH A DRONE OF MARBLE QUARRY ON MOUNT ALTISSIMO AERIAL FOOTAGE FILMED WITH A DRONE OF INTERIOR OF MARBLE QUARRY VARIOUS OF EXPERTS KNOWN AS "TECCHIAROLI" HANGING FROM THE SIDES OF THE MOUNTAIN, PICKING IT WITH POINTY BARS TO REMOVE LOOSE ROCK VARIOUS OF MARBLE QUARRY ON THE SIDE OF MOUNT ALTISSIMO (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR, CONSTANTINO PAOLICCHI, SAYING: "It (the marble quarry) has a history that goes back a very long time, it dates back to 1513 when Pope Leo X gave the order to launch the marble extractions in Versiglia, in the Pietrasanta territory, to create a new economy. Michelangelo is the key element, he is the master who understands about culture as well as engineering and architecture and who must come here because of his know-how to open and kick start the quarries in the areas which had never been excavated before." VARIOUS OF EXPERTS KNOWN AS "TECCHIAROLI" HANGING FROM THE SIDES OF THE MOUNTAIN, PICKING IT WITH POINTY BARS TO REMOVE LOOSE ROCK EXCAVATIONS AT QUARRY VARIOUS OF MARBLE BEING CUT WITH WATER USED TO COOL IT (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) DIRECTOR OF EXTRACTIONS, FRANCO PIEROTTI, SAYING: "The primitive technology consisted of human labour and beasts of burden. The primordial instruments such as levers, chisels and hammers later evolved with the introduction of helical wires in the 19th century and now we have diamond tipped wires and saws and heavy earth-moving equipment." VARIOUS OF FORK LIFT STRUGGLING TO LIFT LARGE PIECE OF CUT MARBLE MAN OPERATING MACHINES VARIOUS OF DIAMOND DRILL BEING USED TO CUT MARBLE SHEETS OF MARBLE BEING WORKED ON IN WORKSHOP MARBLE SHEET BEING SMOOTHENED VARIOUS OF WORKER POLISHING MARBLE WITH SPONGE VARIOUS OF MACHINE BEING USED TO CUT AND POLISH MARBLE VARIOUS OF FINISHED MARBLE ARTEFACTS (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) HENRAUX PRESIDENT AND CEO, PAOLO CARLI, SAYING: "Naturally all the greatest architects and developers work with Henraux, we are highly regarded and they want to keep working with us. To give you an example, ExxonMobil campus in Houston, the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, these are a few of the great architectural projects using our marble. We also cooperate with Apple in Cupertino, we are carrying out the restructuring of their 5th Avenue shop and this is a source of great recognition and we are very proud of it." MARBLE SHEETS BEING MOVED IN YARD
- Embargoed: 16th August 2017 11:56
- Keywords: marble quarry Mount Altissimo Michelangelo marble extraction Henraux artists and architects
- Location: QUERCETA DI SERAVEZZA, ITALY
- City: QUERCETA DI SERAVEZZA, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Human Interest / Brights / Odd News
- Reuters ID: LVA0016SGRBRT
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:In 1517, Michelangelo climbed Mount Altissimo in Tuscany and found the marble of his dreams.
It was, the Renaissance master wrote, "of compact grain, homogeneous, crystalline, reminiscent of sugar". He deemed it perhaps even more precious than that from nearby Carrara, where he had obtained marble for some of his most famous statues.
With the blessing of Pope Leo X, Michelangelo designed a path that could get the blocks of white marble down from the mountain to be transported to Florence, where it was to be used to decorate the facade of the church of San Lorenzo. In exchange for getting a quarry operation going, Florentine authorities had granted Michelangelo the right to take as much marble as he wanted from Altissimo - which in Italian means both "most high" and "God" - for his private use for the rest of his life. "There is enough here to extract until Judgement Day," he wrote to a contemporary.
But it was never to be.
After several years of work to carve out a road, Pope Leo, who was of the Medici family, relieved Michelangelo of his commission and the project was abandoned. The church of San Lorenzo still has no facade.
Today, the quarries of 1589-metre-high (5,213 feet) Altissimo, in Italy's Apuan Alps, buzz with the kind of activity that even a genius like Michelangelo probably could not have foreseen.
Modern cutting and extraction techniques have produced a surreal landscape similar to some Cubism paintings, a dizzying array of upside down staircases and sugar-cube structures looking heavenward.
Before the extracting begins, experts known as "tecchiaroli" hang from the sides of the mountain and pick at its sides with pointy bars to remove loose rock that could fall and hurt workers in subsequent phases of the extraction.
In the centuries following Michelangelo's time, the Altissimo quarries went through cycles of abandonment and re-discovery.
In 1821, Marco Borrini, a local landowner, teamed up with Frenchman Jean Baptiste Alesandre Henraux to start a new company and it has been active in the area ever since.
The venture brought new life to the economically depressed area, employing hundreds of quarrymen, squarers, sledmen, stone cutters and cart drivers, who guided oxen trains.
In 19th century, the czars of Russia chose Altissimo marble for the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg and more recently, it was used in the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, which opened in 2007.
Today, the Henraux Company owns the entire mountain, employs about 140 people and extracts marble from five active quarries on the mountain.
Over the years artists such as Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, Jean Arp and Isamu Moguchi have used Altissimo marble for their sculptures.
Michelangelo would be proud. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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