On the other hand the word ‘serpentine’ is in common use for a dark green stone of quite a different kind, that occurs very commonly in ancient Roman tesselated pavements, and it is this false serpentine that Vasari has in view. It is very hard indeed, and a penknife does not mark it. Professor Bonney describes it as ‘a somewhat altered porphyritic basalt,’ and it is full of scattered crystals of a paler green composed of plagioclasic felspar. These crystals average about the size of grains of maize and they sometimes cross each other, thus justifying Vasari’s description of them. A specimen is B, on the Frontispiece. This stone was found in Egypt, and it is probably the ‘Augustan’ and ‘Tiberian’ stone mentioned by Pliny, Hist. Nat., XXXVI, 7. See Transactions, R.I.B.A., 1888, p. 9. The chief quarry of it however was in the Peloponnesus to the south of Sparta, and the produce of this is called by Pliny, loc. cit., ‘Lacedaemonium viride.’ It should be noted that ‘Verde Antico,’ a green marble of which the chief quarries are in Thessaly, is distinct from both the true and the false ‘serpentine.’
[30]. Cipollaccio. It is not clear what is the difference, if any exist, between the stone thus called and the ‘Cipollino’ which Vasari discusses in a later section, postea, p. 49. The latter is a name in universal employment, but the term ‘Cipollaccio’ is not known to Cavaliere Marchionni, the courteous Director of the Florentine State Manufactory of Mosaics, nor is it recognized at Carrara. On the other hand it is given as the name of a marble in Tomaseo’s Dizionario (though probably only on the strength of this mention in Vasari) and a stone worker at Settignano claimed to know and use the word. On the material see the Note on ‘Cipollino,’ postea, p. 49. The terminations ‘-accio’ and ‘-ino’ are dear to the Florentines—Masaccio and Masolino will occur to everyone.
[31]. This is the ‘Cortile di Belvedere’ where the Laocoon and Apollo Belvedere are located. See Note 30.
[32]. On Michelangelo’s niche and fountain see the Note on ‘The Cortile of the Belvedere in the Vatican in the sixteenth century,’ at the end of the ‘Introduction’ to Architecture, postea, p. 115. The ‘river god’ is the ‘Tigris’ of the Vatican.
[33]. Vasari’s description of the variegated stones called breccias is clear and good. Corsi, Delle Pietre Antiche, Roma, 1845, p. 139, defines breccias as ‘marbles formed of numerous fragments of other marbles either of one colour or of different colours, embedded in a calcareous cement.’ The mineralogist distinguishes breccias from conglomerates by the fact that in the former the fragments embedded are angular, in the latter round like pebbles. The fragments need not be of marble. These breccias were greatly used at the Renaissance, as Vasari indicates, for the framing of doorways and for chimney pieces, but it may be questioned whether they are really suitable for such architectural use. For door jambs and similar constructive members a self-coloured stone, with its greater severity of effect, would be preferable. On the other hand, for panels and inlays and decorative uses generally, the variegated stones are quite in place. See C, D on the Frontispiece.
[34]. See Note on ‘Tuscan Marble Quarries’ postea, p. 119 f.
[35]. S. Giusto, commonly called S. Giusto a Monte Martiri, lies by Monte Rantoli, between the valleys of the Ema and Greve, to the south of Florence.
[36]. Breccia columns answering to this description are to be seen in the lower part of the Boboli Gardens to the west of the ‘island basin’ with John of Bologna’s ‘Oceanus.’
[37]. The Egyptian breccia is found at Hamamat to the east of Luxor. It consists, Mr Brindley writes, in rich-coloured silicious fragments cemented together, and is very difficult to work and to polish, ‘owing to the cementing matrix being frequently harder than the boulders.’ Its general colour is greenish and it is called sometimes ‘Breccia Verde.’ The most important known work executed in this breccia is the grand sarcophagus of Nectanebes I, about 378 B.C., now in the British Museum. It is on the left in the large Hall a little beyond the Rosetta stone. Transactions, R.I.B.A., 1888, p. 24 ff.
[38]. Signor Cornish, the courteous castellan of the Royal Palace, believes this to be the urn that now serves as the basin of the fountain surmounted with a figure of the Arno, near the Annalessa gate of the Boboli Gardens. It has two masks carved on the front, as is common in antique conche of the kind.