{"product_id":"reclining-woman-with-a-lion-marble-statue-180cm","title":"Reclining Woman With a Lion Marble Statue - 180cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt full length and semi-draped, a woman reclines propped upon one elbow with the other arm raised. Her hair is bound up with a plait falling over one shoulder, and she leans back against a lion, which lies behind and below her with its head turned outward and its forepaws crossed. Heaped fruit - grapes, apples, a pomegranate - fills the corner at her feet. The group rests on a moulded pedestal whose face carries a symmetrical band of acanthus scrollwork around a central cartouche. Her marble is white, with grey veining drifting in soft clouds through drapery and pedestal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eCloth and Flesh, Cut to Different Depths\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe whole difficulty of a semi-draped figure is that cloth and skin are the same stone and must not look it. Flesh is carved with long shallow transitions and no hard edges anywhere - a shoulder runs into an arm without a line - while drapery is cut with deep, sharp-bottomed folds that hold black shadow. Drapery folds are cut deeper than the flesh, so cloth and limb never read alike. Where the two meet, at the hip and across the thigh, the fold is undercut hard so the cloth appears to lie ON the leg rather than be part of it, and the flesh just beyond it is left slightly fuller than anatomy wants, because a limb emerging from shadow reads thinner than it is.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a piece to be looked at, not seen. The lion carries at a distance but the face, the plait, the fruit and the acanthus band on the pedestal are all close-range carving, and from twenty paces the group reads as a pale mass. Put it where people come within a pace or two and can walk round it: a courtyard, an orangery, a terrace beside seating, the turn of a path, a hall. At 180cm the reclining figure lies about chest-high, which is where the modelling wants to be. White marble with soft grey cloud veining suits a dark background - hedging, brick, deep planting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Group for Close Quarters\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwenty-two to twenty-four weeks. Dressing the pedestal and sinking its scroll band precede the group, whose block is chosen separately. The lion is roughed and brought close to finish before the figure is touched, because she leans on it and her weight in stone has to be carried by a shape that already exists. The reclining body is then cut, flesh first and drapery afterwards, the folds opened in passes. The raised arm is left thick until everything below it is complete - it is the most exposed stone on the piece and the one thing that cannot be replaced. The heaped fruit is separated late, piece by piece, and the face and plait are the final work. Figure, lion, fruit and pedestal are all free of pins, dowels and fillers. Roughly 3,403kg between group and pedestal, craned apart and bedded onto a poured footing. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCarved figures occupy \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/figurative-sculptures\"\u003efigurative sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and classical groups like this under \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/classic-sculptures\"\u003eclassic 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\u003e180cm\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":53834964664667,"sku":"MST-ANI-069","price":25664.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-069_1.jpg?v=1787157051","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/reclining-woman-with-a-lion-marble-statue-180cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}