Welcome to the #8 email in our series on Sculptors' Materials. This week we are looking at sculpting in stone. 

The history of stone art takes us as far back as to the Palaeolithic era. People have carved into rock, painted on rocky cave walls, made figurines from stone, and toward the end of the Stone Age, constructed crude stone architecture. 

Using rough stone and shaping it into a work of art has been practised by many ancient societies, and the durability of the material has allowed us, millions of years later, to take a peek into their unique culture and artistic practises. 

During the Stone Age, many used this material to make little figurative carvings, which began appearing across Europe from around 30,000 BCE. Since their creators were always on the move, the works were made on a small scale, in order for them to be easily transported. These richly coloured portable figurines often depicted humans gaining control over natural elements and animals – the latter were used predominantly for rituals that were carried out before a hunt. Fertility was another popular theme, as it represented prosperity and expansion of the tribe, which is why many Venus figurines were created at that time. 

One of the most famous stone structures in England is the historical landmark Stonehenge, in Wiltshire. The monument consists of a ring of standing stones, each around 13 feet high, seven feet wide and weighing around 25 tons. It was built in several stages: the first monument was an early henge monument, built about 5,000 years ago, and the unique stone circle was erected in the late Neolithic period about 2500 BC. Two types of stone were used: enormous sarsen stones - a type of silcrete rock, which is found scattered naturally across southern England, and smaller ‘bluestones’ - these are of varied geology but all came from the Preseli Hills in south-west Wales, and they have a bluish tinge when freshly broken or wet. 
There are many theories about Stonehenge's original purpose – it may have been used as a meeting or celebration site, or even as an astronomical calendar. 

The peak of stone sculpting occurred during the period of Romanesque art, followed by the Gothic architecture period that gave birth the greatest collection of three-dimensional religious stone pieces ever seen in the history of sculpture.

A popular choice for sculptors for many centuries, stone is valued for its natural elegance, sturdy nature, and versatility. As it is relatively easy to obtain and carve, it opens up a wide range of possibilities as it can be rough-hewn or delicately polished. 

Different types of stone were used in different regions as sculptors used materials that were available nearby. A variety of limestone was employed all over Europe, and alabaster was popular in England, northern France, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. Marble was commonly used in Italy, and exported to northern Europe from about 1550 onwards.

Whether working in igneous, mineral, sedimentary, metamorphic or semi-precious stones, the end result varies. The softer the stone, the easier it is to work with. While soapstone is the softest one and is commonly used by students of stone carving, the hardest and most durable is igneous rock, formed by the cooling of molten rock, and includes granite, diorite, and basalt. Stones such as alabaster, limestone, sandstone or marble occupy the middle part of the spectrum.

The tools used for stone-carving have largely remained unchanged since antiquity. A mason’s axe cuts out the basic form of the sculpture. This is further shaped or roughed out using picks, points and punches struck by a hammer or mallet. Different sizes of tool are used throughout the carving process to achieve different effects. Roughing-out tools leave deep, uneven grooves, whereas flat chisels achieve finer results and are used for finishing the surface of sandstone, limestone and marble. 

Further smoothing is achieved using rasps or rifflers (metal tools with rough surfaces), or minerals such as sand or emery (stone grit). Polishes can then be applied to fine-grained stone after it has been abraded. Marble and alabaster are polished with pumice, producing a smooth, translucent and reflective surface. They can also be left partially unpolished to create different textures.

The 20th century completely reconsidered, redefined and reworked the concept of sculpture by introducing abstraction, and this brought new approaches to working in stone. Constantin Brancusi introduced the process of direct carving in 1906, where he would carve directly into the stone without carefully working out a preliminary model - usually made of plaster or modelling clay - beforehand. This practise was soon adopted by other established artists such as Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore (illustrated above).

Despite similar tools being used to make stone sculpture today, we can also see a development in the making of stone work with the use of power tools and technology. 

This beautiful marble sculpture was one of the highlights of ‘Divine Principles’, an exhibition by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom for the culmination of his year as Pangolin London's Sculptor in Residence in 2017. His work explores the intersection of the physical and immaterial, the historical and the cutting-edge, referencing classical imagery and adopting digital aesthetics to create his work. ‘Venus Celestis’ is a combination of the mythological figure, the personification of the planet and the surface of the planet itself. With this sculpture the philosophy of the ancient Greek is brought up to date by using exquisite CNC milling techniques.

Sculpture in stone gives a peculiar sense of grounding. Stone of all hues and textures have been carved into different shapes and forms over time. Chunks of dunite, marble and sodalite are re-imagined as figures, globes and other abstract forms in the sculptures below. 

A FEW FACTS ABOUT STONE

1. As stone is so heavy, stability is important. Many free-standing marble figures in dynamic poses are portrayed with tree trunks or columns attached to the legs in order to provide a stable base. 

2. Facebook censored the image of the 30,000 year-old Venus of Willendorf and deemed it as inappropriate and 'pornographic' content in 2018.

3. 90% of the carving for Mount Rushmore was done by dynamite. With 450,000 tons of granite to be removed, chisels were definitely not going to be enough. Borglum decided to try dynamite on October 25, 1927. With practice and precision, workers learned how to blast away the granite, getting within inches of what would be the sculptures' "skin."

4. Many famous buildings still standing today are made of marble including the Taj Mahal, The Washington Monument and The Parthenon. 

5. One of the 10 most expensive sculptures sold at auction includes a 73 cm high stone sculpture Tête carved in 1911-12 by Amedeo Modigliani, which was sold at Christie’s in 2015 for $70.7 million (£44.2 mil). Today, most of Modigliani’s work can only be seen in museums, and very few pieces are still in private ownership. The sculpture shows traditional shapes reminiscent of the Italian Renaissance combined with the style of African masks and the moai of Easter Island.

Images: (From Top) Steve Dilworth, Lapwing; The Venus of Willendorf © Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Austria; Stonehenge, Wiltshire; Michelangelo, David; Henry Moore carving at No.3 Grove Studios, Hammersmith 1927 © The Tate; Zachary Eastwood-Bloom, Venus Celestis; Peter Randall-Page, Geometry of Desire; Anthony Abrahams, Man with Raised Arm; Steve Dilworth, Scored Stone; Eilis O'Connell, Flung Blue; Mount Rushmore with sculptures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln (left to right) by Gutzon and Lincoln Borglum.