THE BUSSOLENO MARBLE
by Ferzini Frans (1997) © L'informatore del Marmista, Verona, Giorgio Zusi Editore, n. 427, pp. 28-32 [original title: Nella Valle di Susa in Piemonte si estraeva il Marmo di Bussoleno]
Between the towns Foresto and Chianocco: overhanging faces
of light-coloured rock-home throughout history to important quarries
of dimensional cladding and decorative marble materials.
At the end of Susa Valley, on the left bank of Bussoleno, the sunny
landscape and its woods of oak trees lying between the towns of
Foresto and Chianocco is dominated by overhanging faces of
light-coloured rock-home throughout history to important quarries of
dimensional, cladding and decorative marble materials.
In particular, the town of Foresto, about 2 km west of Bussoleno,
overlooks the Orrido gorge cut deeply into the mountainside by the
Rocciamelone torrent which, with its sleep sides, swallows like a
Mediaeval Leviathan the most ancient houses and the remains of a
leper colony dating from 1500 and built entirely of stone ashlars.
One of the sides of the Orrido gorge is formed by a modest highspot,
the Truch San Martino, at the base of which, to the south, there is
the oldest of the Bussoleno quarries. The stone quarried here and in
the later sites is generally known as Foresto marble.
The quarry is reached along a track leading from the Orrido gorge or
from behind the town to the tiny quarry forecourt from which the
quarry face itself rises. It is irregularly worked bue is the oldest
example of stone working in the valley, dating from pre-Christian
times under the Romans, when blocks of stone were prepared for
architectural applications in the city of Susa. An example is the
impressive Arch of Augustus, built by Celtic king Cozio in 9 B.C. in
honour of the Roman Emperor. The arch has a single barrel vault with
four Corinthian columns at the corners and historical-sacrificial
scenes carved in low relief on the frieze.
The quarry face of this "mother quarry" is characterised by two
different colour varieties: the dominant section is light in colour
and comprises a white, easily quarried marble which is fissured in
certain points and more compact higher up; the upper section is not
so thick and the marble is ash-coloured. They both have a saccaroid
structure, as described by Pieri: "...rather compact, hard and
easily polished" (Dictionary of Italian Marbles, Hoepli) -
properties which meant that the "mother quarry" and nearby sites
were exploited in subsequent periods for projects such as the facade
of Turin Cathedral dedicated to John the Baptist on the eve of the
Renaissance.
Thanks to "Liber Fabrice"* and "Liber Iornatorum"**, we know that in
May 1491 work began to find stone materials, on the 18th of May,
eight stone cutters arrived from Florence after a journey lasting 10
days, headed by Bernardino de Antrino. They first went to the
Marquis of Saluzzo to see the Isaca quarry, where they carried out
some unsatisfactory surveys, after which they moved to Bussoleno
where a certain Michele Tornia, a quarryman, showed them the site
where marble was quarried near Foresto and other small quarries in
the neigh-bourhood as far as Chianocco. From then on, quarrying,
cutting and transport of marble materials down to the valley became
routine operations using local labour and teams of oxen to haul the
"lezade"***, the sledges used to move the huge blocks. From the end
of January 1492, the Bussoleno quarries resumed production after the
Christmas interval, beginning with the haulage of the materials
quarried and collected down-valley to Turin, thanks to the
horse-drawn barges travelling the River Dora.
The stone cutters remained at the Bussoleno quarries until the end
of 1493, moving later to Turin to begin decoration work on the
Cathedral - but only having first purchased some land at Chianocco
where, on 2nd September they began quarrying marble for the pillars
(even though this material was less white and more ochre in colour).
The facade of the Cathedral certainly bears witness to their skills,
since it is entirely in marble, as are the cornices, the 56
parastades, the small octagonal columns and the wainscot of the
base; the stone itself is a highly decorative element since the
modularity of the cladding is made up of irregular two-colour
segments (white and ash marble). The stone material was prepared by
Bartolomeo de Chiarri and Bernardino de Antrino, who were also
entrusted with the building of the steps in front of the Cathedral.
The most important decorative elements are the work of architect and
sculptor Amedeus del Caprino da Settignano, known as Mheo. He was
appointed "master of works" by Cardinal Domenico della Rovere in
1492 "...ad usam boni magistri". His assistant was Tuscan sculptor
Sandrino di Giovanni, who - among other things - made one of the
superb holy water stoops inside the church. Their task was to carve
candelabra-like decorations with oak leaves in extremely low relief
on the strips, angels and cherubs in low relief on the splays of the
door and the magnificent plaque in the middle of the main door
depicting John the Baptist with two angels in contemplation at the
sides in the style of Verrocchio, despite the obvious differences
arising from the use of a much harder material than statuary white
marble.
Later, in the Baroque period, the quarries of Bussoleno were
exploited - expecially at Chianocco - to provide the pillars and
strips supporting the vault of a new building added to Turin caste
in 1638 by Her Royal Highness Marie Christine of France. Work to
quarry and process the stone continued until 1642, after which it
was only in 1718 that information is available about the re-opening
of the quarries at Foresto and Chianocco thanks to the efforts of
Filippo Juvarra, who had been engaged to create the facade of
Palazzo Madama, entirely in marble, to mask a stairase, which Mallè
had no hesitation in describing as the most "astonishing of the
1700s in Europe". The wainscot is in Chianocco marble and the rest
of the facade in Foresto white marble, which is easier to carve.
Looking back again at the face of the "mother quarry", we see high
to the right a quarried area which is the continuation of the layer
of ash-coloured marble belonging to the main face; it dates from
1700s and, in terms of quality, is known as the "bardiglio" zone.
The cuts are oderley and clean, in the same geometrical planes as
described above, and worked with chisels and claw chisels in a
precise and parallel manner, creating a textured, continuous and
decorative surface. This "bardiglio" is a saccaroid and compact
marble, which is bluer in colour than the ash-coloured marble and
ocasionally grooved by veins of quartz. However, reserves are scarce,
so much so that even at the time the new quarry face was opened, the
stone was considered a rarity and reserved exclusively for the
stairs and steps of the Royal Palace. This brought about its name of
"The Queen's Bardiglio", a term coined by the local stone cutters
not only to highlight its major applications but also its beauty:
the ancient marble was proundly worked by these men, who left their
"trademark" around the end of the 1700s, still visible today as
testimony to hard work and religious hopefulness.
Note2:
* :The "Liber Fabrice" was a book written to record the major events
and personages involved during the construction of an ecclesiastical
building.
** :The "Liber Iornatarum" was another volume in which the expenses
involved in building work were recorded, such as the cost of
materials and daily wages for the various workers and "Magisters".
*** :The "lezade" were the loads of material piled on wooden sleds,
known as "lese".
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