Franco barattini cave michelangelo biography

Ever wondered how marble is quarried? The process, documented in this stunning short by Italian artist and filmmaker Yuri Ancarani, is utterly transfixing.

Assorted observations:

It’s a little unreal how beautiful this is.

I never realized that raw marble is harvested in colossal slabs from the sides of mountains.

That is just unreal.

The quarry featured in the film is located in the Carrara region of Northwest Italy’s Apuan Alps. Marble quarries can be found all around the world, but Carrara marble proved especially popular among Ancient Roman architects and Renaissance artists, alike.

Michelangelo himself is said to have been quite the fan of the milky stone; two of his most renowned sculptures, David and The Pietà, were carved from darkly-veined Carrara marble.

The way the supervisor guides the workers inside the excavators is kind of incredible.

Dude is like a marble-harvesting