{"product_id":"standing-lion-with-a-lobed-mane-marble-statue-180cm","title":"Standing Lion With a Lobed Mane Marble Statue - 180cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eStanding upon an oval base, a lion turns its head aside with the mouth barely parted. All four legs are planted and the tail hangs behind. The mane is cut in broad flat lobes laid in overlapping rows rather than in fine strands, which gives the neck and chest a scaled appearance quite unlike a combed mane. Its marble is a nearly unmarked white, faint grey drifting only through base and flank.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eLobes Are Harder Than Strands\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eA mane of fine strands forgives a great deal: there are hundreds of them, none is looked at on its own, and a lock cut slightly wrong disappears among its neighbours. A mane of broad flat lobes forgives nothing. There are perhaps sixty of them, each one large enough to be read as a shape, and each one is a flat plane with a curved edge - which is the least forgiving thing to cut in stone, because a plane shows every ripple the chisel leaves and a curved edge shows every deviation. Flat lobes are laid in overlapping rows, each row stepped over the one behind it. They are then finished by rubbing rather than by chiselling, because only an abrasive gets a plane truly flat.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the least marked stone in the range - almost no veining, almost no clouding - and that makes it the most sensitive to its setting. Against anything busy it looks blank; against something plain and dark it looks carved. Give it a hedge, a rendered wall, a still pool, mown grass. At 180cm the shoulder comes to hip height and the turned head just above it. The lobed mane depends entirely on shadow between the planes, so raking light does far more for this piece than flat light, and a position that gets low morning or evening sun is worth seeking out.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Clean White Wants Nothing Around It\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSixteen to eighteen weeks. Turning the oval base true precedes the animal, because a rounded plate cannot be corrected once weight sits on it. The animal is then roughed standing on the finished plate, belly kept clear, and the legs brought down with the tail left thick behind. The mane is blocked as one mass and divided into rows only when the body beneath is complete, since a lobe once cut cannot be moved. Each row is worked right round before the next is begun. The head is turned late and the tail freed last of the animal, and the whole surface is then rubbed down through successive abrasives. Animal and oval base alike are free of pins, dowels, fillers and concealed joints. Roughly 3,403kg in one undivided block, needing a crane and a poured footing beneath it. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStanding beasts are scattered through \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, with unmarked white stone under \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\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":53834970530139,"sku":"MST-ANI-072","price":28028.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-072_1.jpg?v=1787157054","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/standing-lion-with-a-lobed-mane-marble-statue-180cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}