The Marble of Michelangelo's Dreams

Alan Taylor
August 3, 2017
18 Photos
In Focus

High in the Apuan Alps of Tuscany sits Monte Altissimo, a 5,213-foot (1,589-meter) mountain, climbed in 1517 by the Italian artist Michelangelo in pursuit of fine marble for his sculptures. There, according to Reuters, he “found the marble of his dreams. It was, the Renaissance master wrote, ‘of compact grain, homogeneous, crystalline, reminiscent of sugar.’” After receiving the blessing of Pope Leo X, Michelangelo worked for years to open a functional quarry, but was unsuccessful, and the project faltered. Today, five quarries operate on the mountain, using heavy machinery and modern techniques to carve up the hillside and extract the prized marble.

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A worker, known as a tecchiaiolo, examines marble at the Cervaiole quarry on Monte Altissimo in the Apuan Alps, Tuscany, Italy, on July 18, 2017. Before the extracting begins, these experts hang from ropes and pick at the sides of the mountain with pointy iron bars to remove loose rock that could fall and hurt workers in subsequent phases of the extraction. #

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The Cervaiole marble quarry on Monte Altissimo is seen from a park in the Apuan Alps on July 18, 2017. Altissimo in Italian means both "most high" and "God." #

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A front-end loader works to lift a marble stone at the Cervaiole quarry on Monte Altissimo on July 15, 2017. #

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An old tunnel in the marble quarry in Carrara, Tuscany, Italy, on July 14, 2017 #

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Work continues at the Cervaiole marble quarry on Monte Altissimo in the Apuan Alps on July 15, 2017. For a sense of scale, the small yellow blob just to the right of center is the cab of a large excavator. #

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The marble road of the Cervaiole quarry winds through Monte Altissimo, photographed on July 14, 2017. In the three centuries following Michelangelo's time, the Altissimo quarries went through cycles of abandonment and rediscovery. In 1821, Marco Borrini, a local landowner, teamed up with Frenchman Jean Baptiste Alexandre Henraux to start a new company and it has been active in the area ever since. The venture brought new life to the economically depressed area, employing hundreds of quarrymen, squarers, sled men, stonecutters, and cart drivers, who guided oxen trains. #

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An ABB robotic arm carves marble at the Henraux Company in Querceta, Tuscany, Italy, on July 14, 2017. #

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A German student sculpts a marble stone in front of La Cappella marble quarry in Tuscany, on July 18, 2017. #

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A view of a marble quarry and the coast of Versilia from Monte Altissimo in the Apuan Alps, Tuscany, Italy, on July 18, 2017 #

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Paolo Carli, president of the Henraux Company, pictured in his factory in Querceta, Italy, on July 14, 2017 #

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The Cervaiole marble quarry on Monte Altissimo in the Apuan Alps, Pietrasanta, Italy, on July 14, 2017 #

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A worker examines marble at the Cervaiole quarry on Monte Altissimo on July 18, 2017. #

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A view of the Cervaiole marble quarry on July 15, 2017 #

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A Komatsu front-end loader arrives to transport a marble stone at the Cervaiole marble quarry on July 14, 2017. #

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Statuary marble at the Cervaiole marble quarry on Monte Altissimo in the Apuan Alps on July 15, 2017 #

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A shelter in the Cervaiole marble quarry on Monte Altissimo, photographed on July 15, 2017 #

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The marble road leading up to the Cervaiole quarry on Monte Altissimo on July 14, 2017 #

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A worker cleans a marble sculpture at the Henraux factory in Querceta, Tuscany, Italy, on July 14, 2017. #

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