{"product_id":"alighting-eagle-grey-marble-garden-statue-220cm","title":"Alighting Eagle Grey Marble Garden Statue - 220cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn eagle alights on a tall rock with both wings raised and its head dropped low. The beak is open, one talon is closed on the stone beneath and the tail streams back level. Both wings lift and spread wide, the flight feathers cut as long deeply incised quills. It stands on a tall irregular rock mass whose whole surface is punched to a dense even texture. Mid grey marble with a blue cast, matte and faintly granular, darker clouding throughout. The name we were given says white; this stone is grey, and the note below says how we checked.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Punched Surface Cannot Be Retouched\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe rock this bird lands on is not smooth stone left rough. Its entire surface is worked over with a point, dot by dot, until the density of the punching is even everywhere - and that is the last operation on the whole piece, because it is the one that admits no correction. A smooth surface can be taken down another millimetre and re-polished. A punched one cannot: go back over a patch and the dots double up, the density changes, and the eye picks out the repair immediately as a bruise in the texture. So the rock is left at full section and perfectly smooth until the eagle above it is completely finished, and only then is it punched, in one continuous pass, working to keep the hand and the rhythm the same from first dot to last.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA bird alighting is caught in the one second before it lands, and the whole composition assumes you are beneath it looking up. At 220cm the spread wings are well overhead, which is what the pose is composed for. On a plinth, a pier, the top of a wall, a rock outcrop, the head of steps - anywhere that adds height - it reads as flight arrested. Set it at your own level on a lawn and it becomes a bird standing on a stone. The grey is the other reason to raise it: a grey stone against grass or dark planting sinks into the background, and against sky it separates completely.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eComposed for a Viewer Below It\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwenty-four to twenty-six weeks. Punching the whole rock surface to one even density is the last operation, and the one that cannot be retouched. The rock mass is blocked out and left smooth at full section, the bird roughed above it with both wings held as thick slabs. The body and the dropped head follow, then the talons, which are freed late because they stand clear on thin stone. Both wings are thinned in alternation and the long quills incised from the shoulder outward. The rock is punched at the very end. Bird and rock take no pin, no dowel and no filler; both come from one block. Some 6,214kg between bird and rock, craned in one lift onto a poured concrete foundation. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBirds of prey are few within \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and grey stone is scarcer still in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/marble-sculptures\"\u003emarble sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eSpecification\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ctable class=\"spec_table\"\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e220cm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBase\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIncluded\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHand-Carved Natural Marble\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Giant Sculptures","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53836753404251,"sku":"MST-ANI-117","price":29619.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-117_1.jpg?v=1787176870","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/alighting-eagle-grey-marble-garden-statue-220cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}