{"product_id":"standing-bull-white-marble-statue-150cm","title":"Standing Bull White Marble Statue - 150cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA bull stands head raised and turned front, the body heavily muscled and smoothed. The horns curve up and out from a combed topknot between the ears, the dewlap hangs in combed folds down the throat, and the tail loops up from the rump before falling in a combed switch. The barrel is deep and the shoulder swells. It stands on a slab whose face carries a carved band of chevrons. White marble with a faint cream warmth, smooth and matte, the surface unbroken.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eCombed Grooves as the Last and Finest Work\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEverything about this bull is smoothed into large simple volumes except three passages - the topknot, the dewlap and the tail switch - which are cut as tight parallel grooves, and those three carry the whole character of the piece. Parallel grooving is deceptively hard: the grooves must stay the same width and the same depth along their length, and they must run truly parallel over a surface that curves in two directions at once. A groove that wanders or shallows out is visible from across a garden, because the eye reads a set of parallel lines with far more precision than it reads a modelled form. They go in last of all, when the volumes beneath them are final and nothing more will be cut anywhere near them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a modern reading of a bull rather than a naturalistic one: the muscle is smoothed into swelling volumes and the hair is cut back to grooves. It suits plain surroundings for that reason - dressed stone, render, mown grass, gravel, a paved courtyard - and it fights with busy planting, where the simplicity that is the point of it reads as bareness. At 150cm the horns are around chest height and the flank reads from the side. The flank is the face of the piece: show it broadside rather than head-on, and the combed passages will catch a low sun the way nothing else on it does.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Simplified Animal Needs a Simple Setting\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSixteen to eighteen weeks. Combing the parallel grooves of dewlap, topknot and tail-switch is the last work and the finest. The slab is dressed and its chevron band cut, and the animal roughed standing upon it with the four legs left as columns. The barrel and shoulder volumes are brought down and smoothed, the head and horns after them, and the looping tail freed late because it stands clear on thin stone. The combed grooves of topknot, dewlap and switch are cut at the very end. Bull and slab are one block, and the chevron band is cut rather than applied. Some 1,969kg all told, which a single gantry lift beds onto a prepared footing. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHorned beasts stand within \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and simplified form among \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/abstract-sculptures\"\u003eabstract 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\u003e150cm\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":53837288210779,"sku":"MST-ANI-143","price":22249.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-143_1.jpg?v=1787180535","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/standing-bull-white-marble-statue-150cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}