Ritratto femminile - MC 428 - Musei Capitolini (2)

Pavonazzetto marble also known as Docimaean marble or Synnadic marble, "Book 9, chapter 5, section 16" is a white marble originally from

Docimium Docimium, Docimia or Docimeium (Greek: and ) was an ancient city of Phrygia, Asia Minor where there were famous marble quarries. History This city, as appears from its coins – which bear the epigraph or – where the inhabitants are ...

, or modern İscehisar, Turkey.

Marble

The name derives from the Italian word for

peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are r ...

(). "In natural stone trade, Pavonazzo is often simply called a Marble." It is one of the many varieties of

Carrara marble Carrara marble, Luna marble to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara in the province of Massa ...

, distinguished by black/gray-veined white marble. Also referred to as "pavonazzetto", and distinguished as: #Various red and purplish marbles and

breccias Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of d ...

. #A marble, used by the ancient Romans, characterized by very irregular veins of dark red with bluish and yellowish tints. The marble has been used in Rome since the Augustan age, when large-scale quarrying began at Docimium, and columns of it were used in the

House of Augustus The House of Augustus, or the ''Domus Augusti'' (not to be confused with the ''Domus Augustana)'', is situated on the Palatine Hill in Rome, Italy. This house has been identified as the primary place of residence for the emperor Augustus (). The ...

, as well as in the

Temple of Mars Ultor The Temple of Mars ''Ultor'' was a sanctuary erected in Ancient Rome by the Roman Emperor Augustus in 2 BCE and dedicated to the god Mars in his guise as avenger. The centerpiece of the Forum of Augustus, it was a peripteral style temple, on th ...

, which also had pavonazzo floor tiles in the

cella A cella (from Latin for small chamber) or naos (from the Greek ναός, "temple") is the inner chamber of an ancient Greek or Roman temple in classical antiquity. Its enclosure within walls has given rise to extended meanings, of a hermit's or ...

. Pavonazzetto statues of kneeling Phrygian barbarians existed in the

Basilica Aemilia The Basilica Aemilia ( it, Basilica Emilia, links=no) was a civil basilica in the Roman Forum, in Rome, Italy. Today only the plan and some rebuilt elements can be seen. The Basilica was 100 meters (328 ft) long and about 30 meters (98&nbs ...

and

Horti Sallustiani The Gardens of Sallust ( la, Horti Sallustiani) was an ancient Roman estate including a landscaped pleasure garden developed by the historian Sallust in the 1st century BC. It occupied a large area in the northeastern sector of Rome, in what would ...

. Giant statue groups carved from Docimaean marble were discovered at Tiberius's Villa in Sperlonga. Pavonazzetto was not widely or extensively used before the Roman period; there is no evidence of it in circulation before the last two decades B.C.Matthias Bruno, et al. “The Docimium Marble Sculptures of the Grotto of Tiberius at Sperlonga.” ''American Journal of Archaeology'', vol. 119, no. 3, 2015, pp. 375–394. Later it was used in Rome in

Trajan's Markets Trajan's Market (; ) is a large complex of ruins in the city of Rome, Italy, located on the Via dei Fori Imperiali, at the opposite end to the Colosseum. The surviving buildings and structures, built as an integral part of Trajan's Forum and ne ...

and for the Memoria Petri, the

tomb of Saint Peter Saint Peter's tomb is a site under St. Peter's Basilica that includes several graves and a structure said by Vatican authorities to have been built to memorialize the location of Saint Peter's grave. St. Peter's tomb is alleged near the west end ...

and internationally in the influential Baroque Revival style historic buildings the

Church of St. Ignatius Loyola The Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola is a Catholic parish church located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City, administered by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). The parish is under the authority of the Archdiocese of New York, and wa ...

, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, and

Belfast City Hall Belfast City Hall ( ga, Halla na Cathrach Bhéal Feirste; Ulster-Scots: ''Bilfawst Citie Haw'') is the civic building of Belfast City Council located in Donegall Square, Belfast, Northern Ireland. It faces North and effectively divides the comm ...

in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

References

{{coord missing, Italy Dacian Building materials Marble

Marble

See also

References