DISCOVER CARRARA MARBLE – BIANCO ORDINARIO, A GUIDE, PART TWO
While many people in Poland have never heard of Ordinario (abbreviation for Bianco Ordinario), the Italians have been using this name for centuries.
In Italian, “bianco” means “white” and “ordinario” is an adjective that refers to something ordinary, typical or common.
Bianco Ordinario is the most quarried marble in the Apuan Alps. However, the name Ordinario may have originally been associated with the most common uses of this kind of marble, not with the mere fact of its availability. White marble, which meets the requirements of sculptors (i.e. a material that allows for the smallest details to be carved, resulting in extremely realistic sculptures), was called Bianco Statuario, while white marble, ideal for creating so-called “opere ordinarie” or “lavori ordinari” or “ordinary, typical works, such as floors, facades, tiles, stairs, fireplaces, plaques and simple altars, busts, monuments or garden sculptures, was called Bianco Ordinario.
Both of these theories are equally plausible, but neither has yet been confirmed. conclusively. Meaning attributed to the name Ordinario in the Carrara community refers to the considerable amount of material quarried, but there are records from the 19th-century professional books that clearly state that the adjective „ordinario“as part of the name of the marble describes its use in “opere ordinarie”, “lavori ordinari”, “usi comuni” a “statue comuni e colossali”.
In Italian:
– the word “statuario” is an adjective which, concerning marble, literally means “suitable for making statues”;
– “opere”, “lavori” means “work”, “labour”;
– “usi comuni” in Italian means “common, widespread use”;
– sculptures “comuni e colossali” are large sculptural works used in public spaces and cities.
Summary:
Apuan marble names can have different meanings depending on when, where and by whom they are used. As a result, multiple meanings can be assigned to the same name.
The key properties of Ordinare:
fine to medium grain, background in shades of pearl grey, light grey, grey, dull-white and dark grey and light grey veins and spots, often blurred, short and scattered, and not in one direction. Some subtypes Bianco Ordinario also have grey-brown orange growths.
After reading the text above, you get the impression that it describes a familiar material: the Bianco Carrara. Bianco Carrara is actually Bianco Ordinario from the Carrara quarries.
Why is the name “Ordinario” not popular in the world? Why, with few exceptions, are Italian stone exporters not using it today?
From our point of view, there are three main reasons:
Firstly, over time the name Ordinario has been assigned to too many white marbles – including dolomite and those not from the Apuan Alps. The Carrara-based companies, aware of this situation, felt the need to define the local Ordinario in terms of grain (compact, fine to medium), composition and technical properties. Therefore, the names Bianco Carrara Ordinario or Bianco Ordinario di Carrara, which were then shortened to the simpler – Bianco Carrara, were adopted. What about all the Ordinaria from other areas of the Apuan Alps? In the vast majority of cases, entrepreneurs promoting this marble name it after the regions where it is quarried, with the name “Bianco” preceding it.
Source: Kurier kamieniarski
Author: Omnistone.pl | Published: 28.02.2020
