Imperial Porphyry

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Back ground about Imperial Prophyry :

 

Porphyry is a remarkably hard, durable rock, which in antiquity derived its name from the fact that its intense, dark red colour, speckled with white inclusions, is similar to the purple colour called purpura by the Romans. The name was extended by association to the massif where porphyry was quarried in Egypt, which the Romans called Mons Porphyrites.

The Romans began to quarry porphyry in the First Century BC, employing it in such large quantities that by the Fifth Century AD their quarries were nearly exhausted. Porphyry was used extensively for monumental elements, and it became invested with an Imperial symbolism, perhaps on account of its analogy with the purpura, which from ancient times had been the prerogative of regal dignity. The use of Porphyry was in fact limited at this time by Diocletian to the Imperial family.

This sacred and celebrative significance was felt and appreciated in the Renaissance courts: porphyry was among the materials most sought after by Sixteenth Century collectors. In Florence, Grand Duke Cosimo I had a particular liking for this stone and sponsored its use in large-scale sculptural works. Given that the ability to execute large sculptural works in this arduous material had long since been lost, such works represented a remarkable technical accomplishment.

 

  Porphyry: a compact, very hard, purple red stone dotted with minute white specks, from the isthmus of Suez, in the eastern Egypt, on the Gebel Dokhan mount, known to the Romans as Mons Porphyrites (from the red color of this stone) or Mons Igneus, Fire mountain. The Porfido Rosso Antico is the classic Roman stone, the symbol of the emperial power and honor. By the late empire, the royal purple stone (porphyry) helped to emphasize the changing role of the emperor as master and divinity, not just "first among equals". This marble was used in emperial tombs, wall panels, columns and vases, whose one of the most famous example is the round vase exposed in the Vatican museum. His high hardness limited strongly his usage in the sculpture, nevertheless the results are excellent.

 

1- the material was used only by kings , it is the only stone material that had never been sold or used by the public

 

“The Imperial quarries at Gebel Dokan, a Red Sea Moutain, are the sole locations in Egypt of an igneous rock called porphyry, coveted by the Romans.  Despite the remote location of the quarries, sacrifices were made to obtain the stone and the Romans set up a wide network of support and transport through the Red Sea Mountains. All that is left now are the ruins of the quarry and the remnants of art and architecture made of or adorned with porphyry.”

 

“ The Imperial Porphyry Quarries, commonly called Mons Porphyrites, are the only Egyptian source of porphyry, a valued stone quarried largely during the Roman occupation of Egypt.  Porphyry itself is not as abundant as granite, limestone, or other building materials, which made it a rare commodity.  The remote and harsh conditions under which the porphyry had to be quarried only serves as proof that the stone was considered priceless.  This view is substantiated in the fact that Egyptian porphyry was used only in artistic creations of great importance, mainly those commissioned by royalty.  The obvious impact of this stone on the culture and art of the Roman Empire and subsequent eras makes a careful study of Mons Porphyrites extremely valuable. “

 

 

 

2-  it is used in the tomb of Napeleopn Bonabart

 

 “the tomb which was completed in 1861 and the Emperor's remains were placed in it. The tomb, made in red porphyry, placed on a base in green granite from Les Vosges, is surrounded by a wreath of laurel and inscriptions recalling the major victories of the Empire. “

 

3- it is the same material used in the tomb of Lenin

 

4- it is the same material used at the Catherdral of  Hagia Sophia the biggest and the greatest Cathedral in the world

 

 “The pair closest to the door in the facade are of porphyry; of the remainder, twelve columns of pink granite alternate with ten of white marble. All are of the crystallized order. Their capitals are of white marble, and the edges of their stalactites heavily gilded.
Domes, which number twenty four, surmount the gallery of tbe cloister  “

 

5- it is the same material used by king farouk of Egypt

 

“Farouk quarried porphyry briefly, and used it to provide Cairo's modern building entries with their distinctive purple lintels. But his efforts lasted only long enough to relearn how hard the work was. Since then, the only modern quarrier was one Lady Cowdray, wife of a Scottish oil magnate, who had promised her husband he would be buried in a porphyry sarcophagus—and so he was.

 

6- it was used in europe only by kings , it was so rare and so precious that coulmns of it were cut as discs and distributed among diffirent churches

 

“ This stone has always had a great symbolic value, apart from aesthetic: the emperors, personifying divinity, lived surrounded by porphyry, they were born in rooms cladded with porphyry and many Roman emperors were even buried in sarcophagus made of porphyry. “

 

7- The Material is so rare and so beautiful and so expensive that statutes of kings and princes were Re Carved in it , 

 

“In Tetrarchic times porphyry was popular in imperial portraiture, but among the marble portraits, there are several examples of re-carving from earlier portraits, like the so-called Licinius in Side, Asia Minor, re-carved from Commodus “

 

 

  

Napeleon Tomb                                                     Lenien Tomb

 

 

 

The Pantheon                                              The medici chapel