Piedras de la arquitectura milanesa

The city of Milan lies in a plain with clayey soil well suited to brick-making, but no stone deposits. An ample supply of stone is available, however, in the surrounding hills and mountains, which are connected to the city via both natural and artificial waterways. The types of stone used since Roman times include: granite, marble and gneiss from Ossola Valley; dolomite from Lake Maggiore; detrital limestone from Ceresio Valley; sandstone from the Brianza Hills; black limestone and marble from Lake Como; and conglomerate and sandstone from the Adda River basin. Traditionally, the chief uses have been dimension stone (all stones), column shafts (granite), slabs (marble), moulding (dolomite, limestone) and ornamental (marble, dolomite, limestone).La ciudad de Milán se encuentra en una llanura de suelo arcilloso adecuado para la fabricación de ladrillos pero en la cual no hay yacimientos de rocas. No obstante, en las colinas y montañas circundantes, que están comunicadas con la ciudad mediante vías navegables naturales y artificiales, sí existe una abundante cantidad de piedra. Entre los tipos de piedra utilizados desde la época de los romanos se encuentran granitos, mármoles y gneises del valle de Ossola, dolomías del lago Mayor, calizas detríticas del valle de Ceresio (Lugano), areniscas de las colinas de la Brianza, calizas negras y mármoles del lago Como y conglomerados y areniscas de la cuenca del río Adda. Tradicionalmente, los principales usos han sido la piedra de fábrica (todas ellas), fustes de columnas (granito), losas (mármol), molduras (dolomía, caliza) y ornamental (mármol, dolomía, caliza)

Tecniche e materiali da costruzione nella Milano antica e medievale

The city of Milan preserve an amazing historical and architectural heritage, consisting of a high number of ancient churches, in most cases built to the origins of Christianity and transformed into new form during the Romanesque. In the article are synthetically presented the results of the research work of the writer about construction techniques of the most important churches in the city (S. Ambrogio, S. Simpliciano, S. Giovanni alle Fonti, S. Nazaro Maggiore, ...), trying to highlight the main changes between Late Antiquity and Romanesque. A large amount of stone material were used in Roman architecture of Milan and Lombardy, thanks to the geological variety of the territory. The Alps supplied granites, diorites, gneisses and marbles; the Prealps supplied limestones, dolomites, sandstones (Mesozoic) and conglomerates (Quaternary); the Padània alluvial plain supplied pebbles, gravels, sands and clays (Quaternary). Each stone had a local use reaching the nearest towns (Como, Pavia, Milan, Bergamo, Brescia) through waterways; the towns of the plain (Piacenza, Cremona, Mantua) employed bricks made of local clay. Milano, the capital, employed also stones coming from abroad (limestones from Venetia and Friuli). White marbles of Apuanian Alps and coloured marbles of Eastern mediterranean were also diffused in Milan and other Lombard sites despite the laborious supplying. The stones quarried by the Romans were continuously used in the following centuries.La città di Milano conserva un patrimonio storico-architettonico straordinario, costituito da un elevato numero di edifici di culto antichi, nella maggior parte dei casi costruiti alle origini del cristianesimo e trasformati in forme nuove in età romanica. Nel contributo vengono presentati sinteticamente i risultati del lavoro di ricerca, condotto da chi scrive, sulle tecniche costruttive dei principali edifici di culto della città (S. Ambrogio, S. Simpliciano, S. Giovanni alle Fonti, S. Nazaro Maggiore, ...), cercando di mettere in luce le principali trasformazioni tra tardoantico e romanico. Un gran numero di materiali lapidei furono utilizzati nell’architettura romana a Milano e in Lombardia, materiali resi disponibili grazie alla varietà geologica del territorio. Le Alpi fornirono graniti, dioriti, gneiss, marmi; le Prealpi calcari, dolomie, arenarie (Mesozoico) e conglomerati (Quaternario); la pianura Padana ciottoli, ghiaie, sabbie e argille dei depositi alluvionali (Quaternario). Ciascuna pietra fu per lo più usata nelle aree limitrofe alle cave, raggiungendo le città (Comum, Ticinum, Mediolanum, Bergomum, Brixia) attraverso le vie d’acqua; nelle città della pianura (Placentia, Cremona, Mantua) furono privilegiati i laterizi fabbricati con l’argilla locale. A Milano, in quanto città capitale, furono impiegate anche pietre provenienti da maggiore distanza (calcari del Veneto e del Friuli). I marmi bianchi delle Alpi Apuane e i marmi colorati del Mediterraneo orientale, nonostante l’approvvigionamento difficoltoso, ebbero una grande diffusione a Mediolanum e in molti altri siti lombardi. I materiali cavati dai Romani furono continuativamente utilizzati anche nei secoli successivi

Location of quarries of magnesian lime used as raw material of Roman plasters in western Lombardy (Italy)

Lime as building material was widely diffused in Roman architecture of western Lombardy. The presence of magnesite (magnesium carbonate) was detected in painted plasters coming from roman sites of Milano: magnesite indicates the use of dolomite to make the lime. Dolomite rocks widely outcrop in the Lombard Prealps: light grey dolomites and dolomitic limestones (Dolomia del Salvatore, Ladinian-Anisian); grey dolomites, sometimes with cyclothemes (Dolomia Principale, Norian). There is no evidence of Roman lime quarries or kilns in this area; the Romans probably exploited the same dolomite outcrops, located along the eastern shore of lake Maggiore, where lime was produced from the Middle Ages onwards. The glacio-fluvial deposits of the middle course of the river Adda (cobbles, pebbles of siliceous limestone together with limestone and dolomite outcropping in the river basin) were another medieval and modern source of raw material, mainly to make a moderately hydraulic lime (called “calce forte”), but this kind of lime is lacking in Roman plasters

Roman Villas of Lake Garda and the Occurrence of Coloured Marbles in the Western Part of “Regio X Venetia et Histria” (Northern Italy)

Important remains of Roman villas are preserved on the shores of Lake Garda, in the western part of “Regio X” (now Brescia province, Lombardy): Toscolano Maderno, Desenzano, Faustinella, Nuvolento. Each villa was developed over several centuries (1st - 5th CE) and contains a lot of coloured marble fragments (slabs, listes etc.), mainly coming from the quarries of the Eastern Mediterranean basin. The wide diffusion of coloured marbles in the western part of Regio X (Venetia et Histria) is then compared to the marbles found in the eastern part of the Regio XI (Transpadana), two territories today united in the region of Lombardy

Marble Wall Decorations from the Imperial Mausoleum (4th C.) and the Basilica of San Lorenzo (5th C.) in Milan: an Update on Colored Marbles in Late Antique Milan

The unpublished remains of marble crustae from late Antique Milan are here presented. They covered the walls of two buildings of imperial commission in Milan: the Imperial Mausoleum and the Basilica of San Lorenzo (4th–5th C. AD). The comparison between the two buildings allows the formulation of hypotheses on the supply, reuse and use of this type of decoration for two buildings that were designed less than one century apart, but in two definitely different political contexts

Marble wall decorations from the Imperial Mausoleum (4th c.) and the Basilica of San Lorenzo (5th c.) in Milan: an update on coloured marbles in Late Antique Milan

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Coloured Marbles in the Neapolitan Pavements (16th and 17th Centuries): the Church of Santi Severino e Sossio

The church of Santi Severino e Sossio (Naples) preserves a series of pavements showing the development of this architectural element between the 16th and 17th centuries. The pavement of the nave (late 16th century) is based on a square grid of white and grey marble with different coloured marble slabs in geometric shapes (Broccatello, Africano, Breccia corallina, Fior di pesco, Giallo antico, Portasanta, Verde antico). The pavement of the chancel (late 17th century) shows a simple pattern of black and white marble; the pavement of the high altar (late 17th century) shows a recurrent fantastic pattern based on floral figures and using a few coloured marbles; the pavement of the choir (late 17th century) contains a square grid based on the contrast between white and grey marble. Two different techniques were used: shaped slabs fitted together on a mortar bedding (“opus sectile”) or an inlay of coloured pieces in a carved monochrome background (“commesso alla fiorentina”)

Frammenti della decorazione parietale del mausoleo imperiale di Milano (IV sec.): i materiali e la loro caratterizzazione

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Unveiling the Use of Creta in Roman Plasters: Analysis of Clay Wall Paintings From Brixia (Italy)

The paper describes the analysis of a particular kind of plaster from the walls of the Roman Sanctuary (first half of the first century BCE) in the centre of Brixia (now Brescia, Italy), which is an outstanding example of Roman Republican architecture. The walls were plastered and painted with different patterns, imitating marble panels and curtains. Optical microscopy on thin sections, X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy were performed on several samples of the plaster in order to reveal the execution technique. The palette consisted of glauconite, celadonite, Egyptian blue, and red and yellow ochres. In some cases, an organic compound, possibly a lipidic compound, was present in the external paint layer, as a surface treatment. The plaster contains two superimposed coats: the render coat with lime binder and sandy aggregate; the finish coat with a clay fraction (illite, chlorite, kaolinite), together with calcite from slaked lime and grains of quartz, silicate and carbonate rocks. Although Vitrivius\u2019 De architectura reported the use of creta (clay) as daub smeared on reed vaults, the Sanctuary of Brixia represents the first documented use in Roman buildings in a painted plaster laid on a stone masonry wall