Marmorari Magistri Romani

/ Dario Del Bufalo. – Roma : L'Erma di Bretschneider, ©2010. - 272 p. : 610 ill. col. ; 21 x 28 cm. - ISBN – 9788882655822

…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, encrypted in a myriad of mosaics and fragments in “opus sectile”, interwoven in endless spirals and “rotae” that pursued each other in quincunxes, like very large Mandala, that fuse the Eastern Cosmos with the Western one.

Looking at a single aspect of ancient and medieval civilisation – the art of marble – Dario Del Bufalo has successfully given us a new and unexpected panorama of Roman art and history. He also looks in detail at the NOTVLAE MARMORARIAE:

the Serpentine Vase drawn by Cassiano dal Pozzo discovered in an Italian museum; the iconographical identification of the Four Crowned Saints (Santi Quattro Coronati) (protectors of the Marble Craftsmen) in a fresco, painted over another one which represented the Tetrarchs, in the Temple of Amun in Luxor; new observations concerning the floor in the painting of “The Ambassadors” by Holbein and a new interpretation of the painting “The Flagellation”, by Piero della Francesca.

Buy now » (in italian)

Download PDF (in italian, 156 Kb)