Carving Light and Body : Studies in Alabaster Meaning(s) / Aleksandra Lipińska.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lipińska, Aleksandra, author.

Series:

Studies in Art & Materiality ; 9.

Early Modern History and Modern History E-Books online, Collection 2026.

Studies in Art & Materiality ; 9

Early Modern History and Modern History E-Books online, Collection 2026

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art--History.

Art.

Material Studies.

Biblical Studies.

New Testament & Early Christian Writings.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (387 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Studies in Alabaster Meaning(s)

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : BRILL, 2026.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Carving Light and Body investigates the mechanisms by which artistic materials generate meaning. Following alabaster across cultures and epochs, Aleksandra Lipińska traces its journey from the quarry to the artist’s workshop, and examines its roles and functions in the realms of art, natural philosophy, theology, poetry, and diplomacy. By exploring alabaster’s qualities and the associations these have invited, she reveals its materiality as an agent that shapes the creation, perception, and significance of artworks. At the same time, she demonstrates that many of the notions traditionally connected with alabaster have been cultural projections, often created independently of its physical properties or natural characteristics.

Contents:

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Figures

Introduction

1 Material as Taxonomic Criterion

2 Fear of Materiality

3 The Heyday of Alabaster

4 Towards an Integrative Approach

1 Calcium Sulphate and Calcium Carbonate: Alabaster as Mineral

1 Gypsum Alabaster

2 Calcite Alabaster

2 Unfinished Marble and Friendship Maker: Alabaster as Object of Study of Natural Historians and Early Encyclopaedists

1 Name

2 What Came First: City, Vessel, or Stone?

3 Stone of the Goddess Bastet

4 White Stone

5 Stone of Victory

6 The Place of Alabaster in Stone Classifications

7 Christian Appropriation

8 Early Modern Revision

9 The Return of the Question of Nomenclature: Alabaster versus Marble

1 Location of Deposits and Their Characteristics

11 Medicine and Magic

3 Matter in Transformation: Alabaster as Art Material

1 Studies on Alabaster Carving Techniques

2 Working in Calcite Alabaster

3 Worsking in Gypsum Alabaster

4 Alabaster as Painting Support

4 Broken Vessel and Sanctified Body: Alabaster as Sacred Stone

1 A Glowing Core under a Rough Shell

2 A Vessel Filled with Meanings

3 The Alabaster Bodies of Saints

4 Alabaster Bodies of Artefacts

5 Faux-albâtre?

6 The Body of Sculpture

7 Pietra incarnata

5 Chaste Bodies and Tempting Flesh: Alabaster as the Female Body

1 Chaste Bodies

2 Ideal Poetic Bodies

3 Whitewashing with Alabaster

4 Tempting Flesh

5 Revisiting Alabaster Bodies

6 Glowing Stones and Light Chambers: Alabaster as Space Maker

1 Oriental mirabilia

2 Alabaster Windows

3 Loci amoeni

4 Revisiting Glowing Windows and Alabaster Chambers

7 Gift of God: Alabaster as a Source of Income and Prestige

1 Julius of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, the ‘Economic’ Duke

2 Alabaster in Central and Eastern Europe in the Later Sixteenth Century

3 Exploitation of the Natural Resources in the Duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel

4 Material as a Medium of Inter-court Communication: Business and Auto-promotion

5 A Silesian Excursus

6 Between Court and City: Business and Religious Denominations

Conclusion: the Rhetoric of Alabaster

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

90-04-72931-3

OCLC:

1591750870

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004729315 DOI