Prof. Dario Del Bufalo
Specialist in stone sculpture , colored marbles , glyptics , restoration and Geoarchaeology
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BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE in Giornale dell’Arte December 2015 “Rome: a closed city”
Once you could visit the Roman Forum without having to pass through gates or pay an entrance fee, you could freely enter the Colosseum without crossing those hideous Innocenti tubes (placed there provisionally and that then became permanent…like everything in Italy), you could stroll along the Colle Oppio (the Oppian Hill) in the evening or...
BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE in Giornale dell’Arte October 2015 “Tut remain in his apartment ”
Egypt: the Minister of Antiquities, Mr Eldamaty, decided a few days ago that Tutankhamun’s mummy (i.e. the real body) will remain in his tomb, the KV62. According to the Ministry, after many technical debates, this decision was taken for conservation reasons and problems. A side chamber in KV62, discovered by Howard Carter in 1922, will...
BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE in Giornale dell’Arte April 2015 “Obsessed with integrations”
Obsessed with integrations The restoration of the Parthenon in Athens has been going on for more than ten years with financing and tight surveillance by Unesco and, despite some criticism (always too little) we continue to call them «restorations»: why? We should we call them «maniacal exercises in stone integration» or «works that are too...
BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE in Giornale dell’Arte March 2015 “A Roman basin conserved in an Etruscan museum ”
A Roman basin conserved in an Etruscan museum The black and white photo illustrated here depicts the oil tycoon, John Paul Getty (1971) at his residence in La Posta Vecchia at Palo Laziale. He poses proudly for the photographer Milton Gendel near a Egyptian red Porphyry basin (labrum) from the Roman period, which he acquired...
BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE in Giornale dell’Arte February 2015 “Sign the restoration”
Sign the restoration The photograph illustrated here is of a 2nd century AD marble Roman sarcophagus conserved in the Archaeological Museum of Albano, a few kilometres from Rome. The curiosity (and at the same time, the horror) is that the «integrative» restoration carried out on the strigil decoration has been documented in a violent and...
UNESCO Restoration at Bassae: ugly and costly
A GdA reader reports a UNESCO fiasco in a place as poetic as Arcadia: Dear Mr Del Bufalo, I fully agree with you about damage done by UNESCO. The fiasco that they are carrying out with the “restoration” work on the Temple of Bassae in Arcadia has left me bewildered. A...
BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE in Il Giornale dell’Arte January 2015 “I’m leaving UNESCO”
I’m leaving UNESCO I have seen many ugly and incorrect restorations and integrations around the world. Many under the auspices of UNESCO, with their big brass plaque, such as the reconstruction of the walls of Samarkand using «fake» materials and incorrect drawings or as in the two examples of «integrative» restoration carried out in Turkey...
The volume Porphyry reviewed by Peter Brown in The New York Review
“Dario Del Bufalo’s Porphyry takes us into the origins and afterlife of porphyry in Europe and Byzantium. Despite a somewhat orotund introduction, it is a constant source of instruction to work one’s way through Del Bufalo’s welldocumented catalog of porphyry pieces, both ancient and modern. We walk the galleries of Europe, where ancient, Renaissance, and...
‘BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE’ in Il Giornale dell’Arte, December 2014 “Il Valzer degli spatinatori”
New column of Archaeological Commentary: ‘BUFALA ARCHEOLOGICA’ – Column in Il Giornale dell’Arte – December 2014 The waltz of the patina removers What is the antique patina in works of art? It is not dirt. It is not a paint applied to the surface. It is not dust or earth. For marble and stone objects, patina...
“BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE” Column in Il Giornale dell’Arte – November 2014
Bank suppositories Have you ever wondered how many masterpieces are hidden away in bank vaults? There are hundreds, works of art delivered for safe-keeping by private individuals for security against theft but also, and perhaps more, works of art owned by the banks themselves or bank foundations who have acquired them for investment, as many...
“BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE” Column in Il Giornale dell’Arte – October 2014
I was decontaminated for those back-sides To entice the (Italian) public to visit museums thousands of strategies are adopted, including opening on public holidays and night openings or free entries several times a year: it is called «valorization», which should not prevent «conservation». But when does conservation prevent valorization? To visit the Riace Bronzes this...
“BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE”…. New Archaeological Commentary column in Il Giornale dell’Arte
SEPTEMBER 2014 An advantageous position How many times have we passed monuments or archaeological ruins covered in scaffolding due to renovations and, after 5 or 10 years, we notice that the scaffolding is still there – as if like this, the site becomes «historicized», to use a term dear to fine arts councils – by now,...
“Porphyry” is presented at BVLGARI New York
The presentation of the volume Porphyry published by Allemandi took place on 23rd October at 6pm at the luxurious location, BVLGARI on 5th Avenue, New York City. The event was introduced by Anna Somers Cocks, Founder Editor and Executive Director of The Art Newspaper, a welcome given by Alberto Festa, President of BVLGARI USA and the Author was...
Drone over the Theatre of Marcellus
Together with Riccardo Filippini, I flew a Hexacopter Drone over the archaeological area of the Theatre of Marcellus to produce a high definition aerial film. To watch it, click on the photo of the Theatre of Marcellus.
Presentation of the volume “Porphyry” at BVLGARI New York
On 23rd October at 6pm the volume Porphyry (Allemandi) will be presented in New York in collaboration with The Art Newspaper in the events area at BVLGARI on 5th Avenue, with the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art who will introduce a conference given by Prof. Dario Del Bufalo.
Remembering Luigi De Cesaris…
Between 2006 and 2008 De Cesaris led the restoration of the tetrarchic frescoes in the Temple of Amun in Luxor supported by USAID, ARCE (American Research Center in Egypt). During the work, Luigi asked my advice concerning the iconography of the images that he was cleaning and unveiling. I would often go and visit De Cesaris at his Egyptian...
The architect has a heart of stone
“Dario Del Bufalo, one of the most important authorities on antique marbles and who now collaborates with curator, Andrea G. De Marchi, on an exhibition on the Santarelli and Zeri stone Collections, has renovated the Castle of Cecchignola to create the headquarters of the Università dei Marmorari: “I began as a child to swap fragments...
Porphyry, Red Imperial Porphyry Power and Religion
This monograph examines the stone material par excellence used throughout the Roman Empire and the most costly of Diocletian’s Edict: Egyptian Red Porphyry. The fortunate circumstances of knowing Professor Raniero Gnoli, who wrote the introduction to this book, and the research and travel carried out with him, have allowed the author to present a large amount of information...
The ancient marbles in the cosmati reuse
The lecture by Prof. Dario Del Bufalo looks at the beginnings of the taste for coloured marbles in the Roman Empire: their use, origins, quarries and colours, and in particular the symbolic, political and religious values of some of the key colours in the iconographical transition from Pagan to Christian Rome. Other aspects covered are the re-use of coloured...
An Egyptian Porphyry bust of Cavour
Rome. An Egyptian Imperial Red Porphyry bust portraying Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour is conserved in the Blue Room in the Palazzo Senatorio on Capitoline Hill. This portrait is circa 82 cm high and depicts a fairly young Cavour, about 45 years old and certainly after 1856, the year in which he received the medal that he wears around...
Magister Vitellius Setinus at “Spoleto Arte”
The series of lectures presented at Spoleto on remarkable characters closes with one on Franco Vitelli, a man of uncertain age, although he was known to be active between 1282 and 1299. He is the last member of the Cosmati family who has created marvellous inlaid geometric stone ‘carpets’ with classical taste and oriental patterns that defy time. Not...
Scultures of The Santarelli and Zeri collection
Scultura, materia e mercato / Dario Del Bufalo (905 Kb) Lo studio dello scultore / Dario Del Bufalo (451 Kb)
Marmorari Magistri Romani
...the Roman Magistri developed a language that was appropriate to the new liturgical values of the Christian religion. Like this, the divine word remained camouflaged in the fractal geometry of Arabic mathematics...
The marble floors in the apartment of Charles IV and Luisa of Parma
Following the Napoleonic decree on the suppression of monasteries, the complex of Saints Bonifacio and Alessio, once freed from the religious order, was chosen and bought by Charles IV of Spain in 1809 as his summer residence while in Rome with his wife, Maria Luisa, Princess of Parma...
Marbres de couleur. Pierres et architecture de l’Antiquité au XVIII siècle
Les marbres de couleur sont des pierres pnécieuses enchâssées dans les joyaux de I'architecture. Cet ouvrage entend suivre une trace à la fois historique et chronologique de l'utilisation des différentes pierres dans l'architecture italienne, de l'époque romaine au baroque.
The murrhine ware rebus
Vasa myrrhina (or murrhina, murrina) hold an outstanding position among the most fashion- able luxury goods in the Ancient World...
Illustrated catalog of The Santarelli Glyptic Collection
Having been philologically united, these rare and precious everyday objects, fruit of careful study and research in the ancient texts, merit being part of an exceptional private collection. The practice of collecting, the result of an aesthetic sensibility, has ancient origins and is frequently associated with a form of patronage that encourages and supports an artistic production, with the...
Places of art : the feats of memory
The Spada Chapel, built in the 1600’s in the Church of San Girolamo della Carità, evokes the history of the Roman family’s ancestors through the magnificence of the marble sculptures…
L’Università dei Marmorari di Roma
The Università dei Marmorari in Rome is extremely grateful to the National Committee for the Celebrations of the Sixth Centenary of its foundation, for having made the publication of this small volume possible...
The Marble Empire. The unique stone that made Rome beautiful
The «marble hunters» both past and present searching for quarries of the «shining stone», which at times are more valuable than gold mines
Marmi colorati. Le pietre e l’architettura dall’Antico al Barocco
This book aims to follow a track the historical chronology of the use of the stone material in Italian architecture from the Roman period to the Baroque...
Notvlae thebaicae
An 18th century altarpiece, almost three metres high, by Antoniazzo Romano situated in the sacristy of the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Rome is framed by two beautiful twin granite columns, the granite being the same as the Column of Flagellation...
Il Granito della Colonna
Among all the Roman quarries of the Eastern Desert of Egypt, the whereabouts of the quarry of the Granite of the Column has, until today, remained almost unknown. However in the first half of the last century, the erudite Roman collector and lawyer Francesco Belli, already describes this stone with its pale grey to almost...
L’Eldorado dei faraoni. Alla scoperta di Berenice Pancrisia
The exciting news of one of the greatest archaeological discoveries: the mythical Berenice Panchrysos, the all-golden city, founded in 270 BC by Ptolemy Philadelphus, (who gave the city his mother’s name) and rediscovered in the Nubian Desert by an Italian expedition in 1989. A great adventure is recounted in detail by the protagonists – the...
Marmi Antichi e Pietre Dure
Coloured marbles are inseparable from Roman civilisation. No culture has searched for and loved these coloured marbles as much as the Romans did...
A precious San Michele in Lucca
The Church of San Michele in Lucca is extremely ancient and is founded on the ruins of the forum of Roman Luca. The first documents show that the church was active by the 8th century, but the current, fanciful form dates back to the 12th century. Its style is a marvellous mix of Romanesque – Gothic – Renaissance….but...
Signature of a Magister identified in Santo Stefano Rotondo
During an inspection in the Basilica of Santo Stefano Rotondo, we photographed a (seemingly unpublished) inscription that was engraved on the footrest of the throne of Gregory the Great that reads: Magister Iohannis. This marble chair is certainly a reuse from antiquity and appears to be from the 2nd century. The uncertain nature of the letters of the signature...
Ugly restoration to the floor in Monreale Cathedral
The mosaic floors in the presbytery and lateral naves in Monreale Cathedral underwent conservative restorations between 2007 and 2009. The degradation of the medieval mosaics (that had already been restored in the 16th century) caused by the excessive presence of the public, was also perhaps increased due to the habit of some tourists to purloin...
