Resumen de Giovan Battista Vaccarini e la «Cava di Giallo sul monte di Castronovo in Sicilia operta d’ordine di Sua Reale Maestà pella formazione delle colonne di sua Real cappella»
This article investigates one of the less known aspects of the professional career of Abbot-Architect Giovan Battista Vaccarini (1702-1768) which concerns his skills as an expert in the quarrying of ornamental and building stones. Called by the Bourbons monarchs to select some marbles for the Palace of Caserta, Vaccarini proposes the yellow marble of Castronovo in Sicily – until then unknown in peninsular Italy and very similar to the most famous giallo numidico – for the columns that had to sustain the vault of the royal chapel. The Crown decided to finance a mining research campaign to obtain large blocks, that was carried out with praised success and the news spread among intellectuals and specialists. However these will not be the only "promotional" actions that emerged: in the depositories of the Royal Palace of Caserta, an oil painting on canvas has recently been found, which depicts the quarry of Castronovo with the mining and carving work in progress and part of the load of the columns already rough-hewn. The figure of the architect Vaccarini is portrayed in the foreground while overseeing the work in one of the rarest representations of this kind (certainly the only one that is known in Sicily). The framework describes in detail the whole process of excavation and carving of the blocks, their lifting and handling, stocking and the beginning of the transport phase by means of ox-drawn carts for the descent downstream of the monoliths (future columns). It demonstrates that the one who conceived the painting, had a profound knowledge of the quarrying techniques, tools and machinery necessary for such important challenge.
