For two millennia, men have done the dangerous work of quarrying marble from the flanks of Mount Altissimo and other nearby mountains in the Apuan Alps of Tuscany because it is unique. Dense and more fine-grained than Grecian or American marble, it can be carved to finer detail. But, it is its color that makes it so prized by sculptors. When chiseled and polished, the stone captures light, then gives it back in the shade of egg shell touched with a bit of ash and a warm drop of vanilla. It seems at once both sad and alive. Such is the stone that has brought men of genius and men of purpose to these mountains.
This partnership between artist and sculptor is likened to that of composer and orchestra; one creates and the other executes. It is essentially a process of scaling up models to full-sized images. Many of the pieces in marble revered from antiquity were produced through this relationship -- including the works of Cellini, Bernini, and Donatello -- and still adorn notable landmarks such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.