The Aesthetics of Marble: From Late Antiquity to the Present

Description

This magnificent book sheds new light on the celebration and uses of marble in art and literature and on the iconic potential of the stone. With 240 color illustrations, it showcases the marble cladding of architecture, the carving of marble and painting on stone, their political and philosophical connotations, and the de- and re-materialising of marble made possible by digital technology. Marble has been a material of choice and a subject of reflection for millennia. Its geology, history, and economics are well known, but its aesthetics remain understudied. While the iconology of materials highlights their semantic properties, this volume contributes to a historical phenomenology and anthropology of materials. It brings together theoretical propositions and empirical case studies from Late Antiquity to the present.

Dario Gamboni is professor of art history at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He has published many books, including The Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution. Gerhard Wolf is director of the Kunsthistorisches Institut-Max-Planck-Institute in Florence and honorary professor at Humboldt University in Berlin. His recent publications include Images Take Flight: Feather Art in Mexico and Europe. Jessica N. Richardson is a senior researcher at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence. She is coeditor and contributing author of Remembering the Middle Ages in Early Modern Italy.