Watching marble being extracted from a modern quarry is an impressive sight one that requires a tricky combination of skill coordination and advanced machinery to achieve.
Why carve marble.
There are a lot of reasons why marble is an excellent stone for carving.
While more resistant than limestone it is subject to attack by weak acids and so performs poorly in outdoor environments subject to acid rain for severe environments granite is a more lasting material but one which is far more difficult to work and much less suitable for.
660 580 bc both in the louvre paris.
Throughout art history sculptors have experimented with an eclectic range of mediums.
Inspired by the monumental stone sculpture of ancient egypt and mesopotamia the greeks began again to carve in stone free standing figures share the solidity and frontal stance characteristic of eastern models but their forms are more dynamic than those of egyptian sculpture as for example the lady of auxerre and torso of hera early archaic period c.
Marble does not bear handling well as it will absorb skin oils when touched which leads to yellow brownish staining.
While cast bronze carved wood and fired clay have made lasting impressions no material has captivated quite like marble.
The taj mahal one of the significant seven wonders of the world is entirely carved out of white marble.
If you cut at a very oblique angle to the stone you can get a finer surface.
It s a hard material but you can jump into a piece of space with these tools.
It s relatively soft and that means it is easy to carve and create smooth curves and shapes that would be very difficult in harder tones like granite.
Etmatuddaula tomb which is of nur jahan s father was built by nur jahan in white marble between 1622 and 1628.
The marble carving also include the marble inlay work on the architectural monuments like the red fort and the taj mahal in agra.
This may be because the marble slab was narrow having been cut with the thinner statues of donatello and agostino s era in mind.
There s no going backwards with marble carving since it is a reductive process.
As i said you start by getting the general shape and then once you ve got the general shape of the figure or whatever it is that you re carving then you ll switch down to these chisels that have teeth starting with a larger.
How to carve a sculpture out of marble.
But without the aid.
The creation of a large scale marble statue which on average took a greek sculptor roughly 12 months to complete involves a number of steps.
From this initial model a full size model is developed.
First the artist typically makes a small maquette in wax or clay over an armature or frame.
Something to remember about marble carving it s very tactile the way the stone bursts from a point chisel or the way your tooth chisel just kind of swims through the stone.
Prevalent in ancient and contemporary art alike marble artworks have a prominent place in many major art movements and are among some of the most famous sculptures in the world.
