![]() Unlike bronze sculpture, this statue is not hollow her drapery is one solid block of marble. This would not be possible without the deliberate decision by Gould to distribute almost all of the marble's weight to her massive, flowing skirt. In Thomas Ridgeway Gould's The West Wind, for example, he poised the figure's short and slender ankles delicately upon the balls of her small feet. This drawback means that sculptors must incorporate specific supporting features into the sculpture to prevent collapse. Compared to metals such as bronze, furthermore, marble is inflexible and vulnerable to fracturing. For severe environments, granite is a more lasting material but one which is far more difficult to work and much less suitable for refined works. ![]() While more resistant than limestone it is subject to attack by weak acids, and so performs poorly in outdoor environments subject to acid rain. Marble sculptors must be careful when handling their materials, as the stone can absorb skin oils and develop yellow or brown stains. This feature can pose challenges when dating ancient works. As a result, surface changes due to the immediate environment are not always visible to the naked eye. In contrast to limestone, marble is also extremely weather-resistant. Preference to the cheaper and less translucent limestone is based largely on the fineness of marble's grain, which enables the sculptor to render minute detail in a manner not always possible with limestone. As the finished marble ages, it becomes harder and more durable. Some types of marble also have the advantage that, when first quarried, it is relatively soft and easy to work, refine, and polish. It is this translucency that gives a marble sculpture a visual depth beyond its surface and this evokes a certain realism when used for figurative works. subsurface scattering that is comparable to that of human skin. The finest marbles for sculpture have no or few stains, though natural stains can be incorporated into the work itself.Īmong the commonly available stones, only marble has a slight translucency i.e. Marble is formed when the limestone is transformed by heat and pressure after being overlain by other materials. The original source of the parent limestone is the seabed deposition of calcium carbonate in the form of microscopic animal skeletons or similar materials. Marble is a metamorphic rock derived from limestone, composed mostly of calcite (a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, CaCO 3). Comedy by Victor-Edmond Leharivel-Durocher Material origin and qualities Thomas Ridgeway Gould. This was used by Michelangelo and other Renaissance sculptors, and later exported, including to America. Carrara marble from northern Italy was used by the Romans, and very extensively up to recent decades, when the pure white statuario grade more or less ran out. įamous individual types and quarries include from classical times Parian marble from Paros, used for the Venus de Milo and many other Ancient Greek sculptures, and Pentelic marble, from near Athens, used for most of the Parthenon sculptures, and by the Romans. The degree of hardness is right to carve without too much difficulty, but still give a very durable result, if not exposed to acid rain or seawater. Of the many different types of marble the pure white ones are generally used for sculpture, with coloured ones preferred for many architectural and decorative uses. This gives an attractive soft appearance that is especially good for representing human skin, which can also be polished. Marble has been the preferred material for stone monumental sculpture since ancient times, with several advantages over its more common geological "parent" limestone, in particular the ability to absorb light a small distance into the surface before refracting it in subsurface scattering. Lorenzo Bartolini, (Italian, 1777–1850), La Table aux Amours (The Demidoff Table), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, Marble sculpture ![]() An ancient Greek marble Trojan archer sculpture from the Temple of Aphaia missing original paint (left), and a re-creation of the same polychromy sculpture based on archaeological remnants of paint found on the marble surface (right) Most ancient European marble sculptures were painted.
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