Stone
Sculpture, architecture and objects carved or built from natural rock such as limestone, sandstone, granite and marble.
25 works · 10 related artists
About
Stone is the most durable of the traditional sculptural materials and the least forgiving once cut. Each type behaves differently: limestone and sandstone carve easily but weather, granite and basalt resist the chisel yet keep their form for millennia, and marble takes a fine polish. Carvers traditionally rough out a block with a point, refine it with toothed and flat chisels, and finish with abrasives.
Stone holds much of the world's surviving art: Egyptian statues in diorite and granite, the colossal basalt Olmec heads of Mexico, the relief galleries of Borobudur in Java and the portal sculpture of Romanesque and Gothic churches. Claus Sluter's Well of Moses in Dijon, carved around 1400, gave limestone prophets striking individuality. Charles Garnier's Paris Opéra displays coloured marbles and carved stone, and in the 20th century Barbara Hepworth and Isamu Noguchi championed direct carving. Look for tool marks, bedding layers and weathering.
