The Greek and Asiatic marbles of the Florentine Niobids

The provenance of the marbles used for ten Niobids sculptures discovered at Rome in 1583 and now at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence has been determined using a well-established multi-method approach including isotopic, petrographic and EPR data. An eleventh sculpture (inv. 304) that is not part of the original group but has been long associated with it has also been investigated. The results partly confirm the belief that the marble of several Niobids is Pentelic, but also identify statues such as the Niobe group, the elder Niobid and others that were made using Asiatic marbles from Docimium and Goktepe. Sculptures still considered to be Pentelic are, in fact, Asiatic, whereas statues that were assumed to be Asiatic are Pentelic. Marble data support the opinion that different ateliers contributed to the work and group the sculptures in agreement with the results of stylistic analysis as proposed by various scholars. Provenance data in connection with archaeological and art-historical results allow to formulate possible hypotheses on the way this famous and complex group of sculptures was assembled. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.