The world expert on this would be Prof. Peter Rockwell, an accomplished
sculptor as a well as an academic (based in Italy). He wrote the definitive
work on this subject, meant to be a guide for conservators and art
historians - it is called "The Art of Stoneworking" - the problem is/was
that it is written in Italian! He eventually made a copy in English,
published by Oxford University Press. It is long out of print, he gave me
permission to photocopy a library copy to use for teaching stone.
Anyways -he mentions pentelic marble (note your spelling mistake) twice. He
mentions the Column of Trajan as a significant example of the stone worker
and quarrying art. "The marble also had to be of a quality that allowed the
carving of as great deal of fine detail. Since ethere3 was little time in
relation to the size of the project, a very hard marble would slow the work
down. The choice of marble was then virtually limited to Luni (ancient
Carrara) marble, the only one that met these conditions. Pentelic is very
hard and not quite as reliable for small detail work, and Docimeum required
extensive overland transport."
As far as pentelic and the Arch of Titus " The Imperial Roman builders, like
our own, had a quarrying and transport system that functioned separately
from specific projects. When an Imperial Roman architect had a major
project, he drew the material from the available stockpile rather than
ordering new stone. The Imperial works administration would then see to
replenishing the stocks. For the Arch of Titus, for example, the stone may
have already been in Rome waiting to be picked for some important project.
The architect used two types of stone: - travertine on the foundations,
Pentelic marble for the rest. The difference in material was to avoid using
valuable marble where unnecessary."
If you need more specific information - Prof. Rockwell is approachable by
email
Post by TimeTravellerHi, all
I've been reading up on the Arch of Titus and it says all the time that
its made of pantelic marble, but it never explains what that is.
I've looked it up in the dictionary, no help.
I've bopped around the Internet and found one site that says that
Pantelic Marble is marble that comes from the Parthenon, but I find it
difficult to believe that the huge Arch of Titus could have been built
out of marble from the Parthenon...
Please help somebody!