Prof. Dario Del Bufalo
Specialist in stone sculpture , colored marbles , glyptics , restoration and Geoarchaeology
English
ItalianoArchivio
Colored marbles
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...
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” 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...
“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...
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.
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.
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...
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...
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...
The Sarcophagus of Saint Constance transferred to the Vatican Museums (1791)
The sarcophagus of Constantina was built at the same time as the church (4th century) and was placed in a niche opposite the entrance. The lid is decorated with garlands supported by protomes, while the body is decorated in relief with scenes of cupids and the grape harvest adorning the upper register, a theme which is repeated in...
Egyptian Imperial Porphyry
I am preparing a monograph on Imperial Red Porphyry from the Egyptian quarries with a chapter dedicated to the quarries, its extraction and its transportation. A section will be devoted to the political, religious and symbolic value of the purple stone and of the Lapis Porphyrites. Another chapter will be dedicated to the history and...
Ritrovato il vaso di Cassiano Dal Pozzo
We have identified the Serpentine Green Porphyry vase drawn by Cassiano Dal Pozzo and his brother Carlo Antonio, in Pope Benedict XIV’s Coin Cabinet at the Civic Museum in Bologna in one of the many drawings of his famous ‘Paper Museum’… Download PDF (864 KB) Estratto da Marmorari Magistri Romani di Dario Del Bufalo. Roma, L’Erma...
The colors of Rome
Prized and colourful marbles marked the grandeur and pomp of Imperial power… Download PDF (in italian, 692 Kb)
L’Impero di Marmo: Interview with Dario Del Bufalo
Interview by Folco Quilici to Dario Del Bufalo
Dario Del Bufalo, fanatique d’antiques
“Ancient antiquarie devenu spécialiste des marbres, Dario Del Bufalo vit au sud de Rome dans une maison entièrement envahie par des bustes polychromes, des fragments de marbres antiques et des pierres dures. Portrait d’un collectionneur globe-trotter …” Download PDF (820 Kb)
Stories of stone : from Egypt to Ancient Rome , sculptures , fragments , pieces of marble and granite create a precious collection
“… Not only for the beauty, not only for curiosity, … but for the pleasure of placing each piece as a milestone in one’s own memory, one’s own passion for knowledge…” Download PDF (in italian, 1,2 MB)
Rome : l’empire des marbres
“… Rencontre avec Dario Del Bufalo, expert italien mondialement reconnu des marbres antiques …” Download PDF (in italian, 1,9 MB)
All shades of marble: the classical age to the Grand Tour, the Dario Del Bufalo Collection
“… fragments and low reliefs, samples of precious marbles, eighteenth century archeological Souvenirs from the Grand Tour… a whirl of magnificent names … from the rosso antico to the black and white Aquitaine…” Download PDF (in italian, 1,5 MB)
The (Roman) marble Empire
… so the Roman Empire was, with its sumptuous capital full of coloured marbles from the most far-off provinces… Download PDF (in italian, 877 Kb)
Marble Fables
The eclectic and visionary virtuosity of Benedetto Boschetti, a mid-19th century artist from Rome…
