ANTIQUE MARBLES. 



69 



to the Pentelic marble, rather than to that of Paros, probably because 

 it was more accessible to Athens, the quarries being on Mount Pen- 

 telicus,only about eight miles from the city. It is finer in grain than 

 the Parian, and is whiter, but it is less translucid, and it has a ten- 

 dency to exfoliate under atmospheric influence, so that it loses in time 

 its polished surface. It is marked, too, by occasional zones of greenish 

 talc, whence it is called by the Italian sculptors cipolino statuario, 

 from its resemblance to an onion (cipola). It is sometimes called also 

 marmo salino, from its salt-like grains. The Parthenon, the Propy- 

 Igea, the Erechtheum, and most of the other principal buildings of 

 Athens, were constructed of Pentelic marble, and it was also the ma- 

 terial of some of the most celebrated of the ancient statues, such as 

 the " Venus " of the Capitol, the " Pallas " of the Albani villa, the 

 "Indian Bacchus," and many portrait busts. 



The Pentelic quarries, says Dodwell, are cut in perpendicxdar 

 precipices in the side of the mountain. The marks of the tools are 

 everywhere visible, and the tracks of the sledges on which the im- 

 mense masses were drawn down the declivity to the plain are still to 

 be seen. Several frusta of columns and other blocks lie at the base 

 of the excavation, just as they were left by the ancient quarrymen. 

 One of the larger excavations is worked now. 



Tlie Hymettan marble, from Mount Hymettus on the southeast side 

 of Athens, was employed in Xenophon's time in the construction of 

 temples, altars, shrines, and statues, throughout Greece, but especially 

 in Athens. The Romans used it to a much greater extent than the 

 Pentelic, partly because the quarries were nearer the sea, and partly 

 because its peculiar tint became the fashion. It was of a much less 

 brilliant white tlian the Pentelic, in some places becoming almost 

 gray. It was used chiefly for buildings. According to Pliny, Lucius 

 Scaurus was the first in Rome to decorate his house with Hymettan 

 columns, 104 b. c. The statue of Meleager, in Paris, is made of this 

 marble. 



In the time of Julius Coesar quarries of white marble were opened 

 at Luna, on the coast of Etruria, and thenceforth Rome drew her sup- 

 ply of building-marbles from this place, almost to the exclusion of 

 the Greek marbles. The Pantheon, and many other public buildings, 

 were constructed of it. It was soon found to be adapt>ed also for 

 statuary, and finally came to be preferred to the Parian. The " An- 

 tinous" of the Capitol, now in the Paris Museum, is of this marble, 

 and, according to some, the "Apollo Belvedere" also; but the Ro- 

 man sculptors think the latter is a Greek marble. The marble of 

 Luna, called by the ancients marmor Lunense, and which is the same 

 as the modern Carrara, is whiter than either the Parian or Pentelic, 

 and some of its veins are not inferior in beauty of grain and in soft- 

 ness to the former. 



In 1847 a quarry of white marble was opened at Maremma, about 



