Relevance Of Marble In Architecture

Historical monuments and pieces of ancient sculptures, which are present till these days, prove the importance of marble for architectural works. They speak of the elegance and beauty of marble. Earlier the high price of marble could be afforded only by the riches. So, the palaces, churches and historical buildings only had marble works. Thus marble was a stone that was not found in the house of commoners.

Roman coliseum has been an excellent piece of marble architecture that was built centuries ago. In fact almost every major civilization has used natural stone in the architecture that they have created. Egyptians have used them for the construction of pyramids. Marble in the form of slabs were first used by the Romans. They used it for wall applications. Romans could use this natural stones in the walls as they had invented cement that could hold marble tiles in proper place. History tells that Romans were excellent architects and builders. They had redone the entire city with marble and made it world’s most beautiful city.

Most of the marble sculptures in Rome were made from white marble. It added to the elegance and dignity of the pieces. Sculpture artists have always preferred to use marble for their works as it was easy for them to show all the fine edges on marble. A hard stone, marble can get life if an artist knows how to do the sculpture works. White marble was not only used by the Romans. The popularity of the white marbles was also seen during the time of Renaissance. It has been preferred as a material for carving.

In fact the use of marble and other natural stones have been revived during the Renaissance period. Sculpture made by Michelangelo can be cited as evidence to prove the spread of marble sculpture during the Renaissance. Though a large number of Roman sculptures and marble works were found in white, yet the Romans also preferred to use colored materials for sculpture. In was in first century BC, people in Rome started to use marble in an extensive manner. Most of the Roman buildings were made up of marble during the period of Emperor Augustus. Several architectural pieces of Rome used marble for the decoration. They showed the importance of marble in the field of architecture.

Interiors of some of the Roman churches had excellent marble and mosaic architecture. Most of these churches dated during the period of 12th century to 14th century. The Cosmati marble works, for ages have been considered as a wonderful marble architecture. They were used for the decoration of several building. Pavements at the time of Roman empires also had some marvelous designs made with marble.

Marble also has a significant role in the architectures of other countries. Some of the Indian monuments also show the importance of marble in the architecture of the country. Natural stone marble has not lost its importance architectures of present days. These days too marble is used in all parts of the world for creating unique architectural pieces.