GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

Detailed explanation-1: -Carrara marble from northern Italy was used by the Romans, and very extensively up to recent decades, when the pure white statuario grade more or less ran out. This was used by Michelangelo and other Renaissance sculptors, and later exported, including to America.

Detailed explanation-2: -As with Greek sculpture, the Romans worked stone, precious metals, glass and terracotta but favoured bronze and marble above all else for their finest work. However, as metal has always been in high demand for re-use, most of the surviving examples of Roman sculpture are in marble.

Detailed explanation-3: -Rome’s closest source of marble was modern Carrara in Tuscany, the same quarries that provided the blocks for Michelangelo’s David and Pietà and which continue to produce snow-white stone for artists and architects around the world.

Detailed explanation-4: -Marble has been used equally for relief sculpture and friezes, as well as the free-standing statue. In fact, ever since the invention of metal tools during the Bronze Age, marble stone has been highly prized by sculptors and architects alike.