The history of the “Virgin with Child” sculpture (Ottaviano, Naples,southern Italy): Hypotheses from archaeometric multi-technique investigations

A life-size whitish marble statue of a “Virgin with Child” has been recently rediscovered in the St. Rosario church located in Ottaviano, a small town near Naples (southern Italy). This artwork shows stylistic fea- tures of the Tuscan-Roman school of the 16th century, and is framed in an intriguing historical context. Historical documents testify that the sculpture was a property of the cadet branch of noble Tuscan family of the Medici, the Medici of Ottaviano. A multianalytical approach has been used to try to indicate the supply area of the white marble of the studied sculpture. Considering the whole mineralogical, petro- graphic and geochemical data, the source rock can be possibly limited to the main classical white marbles of the Mediterranean district, as the classical marble of Aphrodisias. A reuse practice of a former artwork can be also hypothesized.