Pietra Santa

From this

to this

to this

'Pietra Santa' means sacred stone, thus entitled because to me it has become a sacred stone over time, from the moment I saw it on the river-bed and carried it back to the studio nearby, worked on it for 10 blissful days in an environment steeped in marble-carving history, flew it back to England - at great expense, because I thought I could carry it back home in my suitcase without easyJet charging me excess baggage (what was I thinking?!?); they charged me 180 euros, and I counted myself lucky because they nearly refused to let me on the plane at all - and back to the almost-as-inspiring surroundings of my own studio, where the stone gradually began really to take shape, with the formation of the hole, the decision to lay the stone horizontally on the base to accentuate the element of serenity, to the final resolution of finding the right base and plinth 'assemblage': evoking an altar, thus elevating it to a 'pietra santa'.

Pietrasanta is also the name of the town famous for its marble studios and bronze foundries, a magnet and sanctum for sculptors today and the place where Michelangelo worked and lived between 1516 and 1520, quarrying his own gigantic blocks of marble.