Marble and Stone Working

In Tuscany the geographies of marble and stone are very sharply drawn. Carrara and the Apuan basin (province of Massa-Carrara) are the world centre of white statuary marble: it has been quarried here for two thousand years, here are the sculpture workshops that work for contemporary artists from all over the world, here the sawmills and the workshops produce slabs, semi-finished stock and works of art. Pietrasanta in the Versilia (province of Lucca) is the international capital of sculpture: since the twentieth century it has been the place where sculptors from all over the world come to have their projects made, drawing on the know-how of the local workshops and the availability of raw material. Volterra, in the province of Pisa, has a very ancient tradition of working alabaster — a translucent stone that yields objects of light: lamps, statuettes, fine ware. There are then lesser traditions tied to pietra serena (the Firenze and Arezzo areas), to sandstone, and to the pietra leccese brought into Tuscany for restoration work.

Doing it today means standing in a complex sector. Apuan marble is a billion-euro extraction industry, but artisan sculpture — that of the workshops of Pietrasanta and Carrara — is caught between the luxury market (commissions from international artists, monumental works for galleries and private clients) and a more serial production of decorative ware. The best workshops hold on by combining both levels. Volterra alabaster is going through a hard season because of competition from industrial decorative products, but the historic manufactories keep a knowledgeable clientele. The environmental challenge (quarrying, dust, water consumption) is central and increasingly present in the policies of the sector.