§ 7. Of Paragon (Touchstone).[[48]]
A kind of black stone, called paragon, is likewise quarried in Egypt and also in some parts of Greece. It is so named because it forms a test for trying gold; the workman rubs the gold on this stone and discerns its colour, and on this account, used as it is for comparing or testing, it comes to be named paragon, or indexstone (a). Of this there is another variety, with a different grain and colour, for it has, almost but not quite, the tint of the mulberry, and does not lend itself readily to the tool. It was used by the ancients for some of those sphinxes and other animals seen in various places in Rome, and for a figure of greater size, a hermaphrodite in Parione,[[49]] alongside of another most beautiful statue of porphyry.[[50]] This stone is hard to carve, but is extraordinarily beautiful and takes a wonderful polish (b). The same sort is also to be found in Tuscany, in the hills of Prato, ten miles distant from Florence (c), and in the mountains of Carrara. On modern tombs many sarcophagi and repositories for the dead are to be seen of it; for example, in the principal chapel in the Carmine at Florence, where is the tomb of Piero Soderini (although he is not within it) made of this stone, and a canopy too of this same Prato touchstone, so well finished and so lustrous that it looks like a piece of satin rather than a cut and polished stone (d). Thus again, in the facing which covers the outside of the church of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, all over the building, there is a different kind of black marble (e) and red marble (f), but all worked in the same manner.
§ 8. Of Transparent Marbles for filling window openings.
Some sorts of marble are found in Greece and in all parts of the East, which are white and yellowish, and very transparent. These were used by the ancients for baths and hot-air chambers and for all those places which need protection against wind, and in our own days there are still to be seen in the tribune of San Miniato a Monte, the abode of the monks of Monte Oliveto, above the gates of Florence, some windows of this marble, which admit light but not air.[[51]] By means of this invention people gave light to their dwellings and kept out the cold.
§ 9. Of Statuary Marbles.
From the same quarries[[52]] were taken other marbles free from veins, but of the same colour, out of which were carved the noblest statues. These marbles were of a very fine grain and consistency, and they were continually being made use of by all who carved capitals and other architectural ornaments. The blocks available for sculpture were of great size as appears in the Colossi of Montecavallo at Rome,[[53]] in the Nile[[54]] of the Belvedere and in all the most famous and noble statues. Apart from the question of the marble, one can recognize these to be Greek from the fashion of the head, the arrangement of the hair, and from the nose, which from its juncture with the eyebrows down to the nostril is somewhat square.[[55]] This marble is worked with ordinary tools and with drills, and is polished with pumice stone, with chalk from Tripoli, and with leather and wisps of straw.
In the mountains of Carrara in the Carfagnana,[[56]] near to the heights of Luni, there are many varieties of marble, some black,[[57]] some verging towards grey, some mingled with red and others again with grey veins.[[58]] These form an outer crust over the white marbles, and they take those colours, because they are not refined, but rather are smitten by time, water and the soil. Again, there are other sorts of marble, called ‘cipollini,’[[59]] ‘saligni,’ ‘campanini’ and ‘mischiati.’[[60]] The most abundant kind is pure white and milky in tone; it is easy to work and quite perfect for carving into figures. Enormous blocks lie there ready to be quarried, and in our own days, pieces measuring nine braccia have been hewn out for colossal statues. Two of these colossi have recently been sculptured, each from a single block. The one is Michelagnolo’s ‘David,’ which is at the entrance of the Ducal Palace in Florence;[[61]] the other is the ‘Hercules and Cacus’ from the hand of Bandinello standing at the other side of the same entrance. Another block of nine braccia in length was taken out of the quarry a few years ago, in order that the same Baccio Bandinello should carve a figure of Neptune for the fountain which the Duke is having erected on the piazza. But, Bandinello being dead, it has since been given to Ammannato, an excellent sculptor, for him likewise to carve a Neptune out of it.[[62]] But of all these marbles, that of the quarry named Polvaccio,[[63]] in the place of that name, has the fewest blemishes and veins and is free from those knots and nuts which very often occur in an extended surface of marble—occasioning no little difficulty to the worker, and spoiling the statues even when they are finished. From the quarries of Seravezza, near to Pietrasanta, there have been taken out a set of columns, all of the same height, destined for the façade of San Lorenzo at Florence, which is now sketched out in front of the door of that church;[[64]] one of these columns is to be seen there, the rest remain, some in the quarry, some at the seashore.
Fig. 2.—Tools mentioned by Vasari, etc.
A, B, Models of Tools used in Egypt at the present day for working hard stones. C, The pick referred to by Vasari, p. [41]. D, A burin or graver. E-J, Tools in actual use in a stone-cutter’s yard at Settignano: