Attribution Testing of Marble Statuary

Abstract

During the archaeological research of some XVI – XVII century possessions’ of Kaunas old-town there were found marble statuary fragments and architectural decorations’ elements. The aim of the present research was to prepare assumptions for the study of art and historical research of the discovered statuary and architectural decoration elements. It was important to determine mineral composition of the historical statuary fragments, as well as to analyse and describe weathering processes of their rock and to determine the original location of statuary raw materials. The majority of identified statuary fragments were chiselled from marble and some, supposedly, architectural decoration elements, from dolomite of foreign origin. Because of the lack of comparable marble and dolomite rock samples the determination of the discovered statuary fragments’ raw rock’s original locations (quarries) was impossible. The research results confirmed the assumptions about presence of rock in the surface cultural soil layer for a long time. The results of analysis of soil found in the statuary fixing hole proved that the statuary laid in the soil of Kaunas city or its regions. The results of instrumental researche have not answered to the main question – who is the author of the broken statuary and in which historical period they were chiselled. The search of these answers is a task for qualified experts of study of art and purposeful historical-archival approach of analysis.