Reliëfs boven de ingang van Musée Lorrain te Nancy before 1896

These reliefs above the entrance to the Musée Lorrain in Nancy, France, are made of stone and are of unknown date and authorship. The stone from which the doorway is carved is clearly sedimentary, made up of many layers of accumulated silt. The original block would have been selected, quarried, and transported to the site. The relief sculpture was then produced through a reductive process of chiseling away at the stone. It would require a team of people, with highly specialized skills in masonry. The layered nature of stone makes it well-suited to relief carving, but it also requires the mason to work in concert with the material, to avoid fracturing. The resulting ornamentation gives an insight into the region’s history, and tells a story about the local nobility. The degree of detailing signals wealth and power, with stone reliefs demonstrating mastery in a way that painted ornamentation never could. This doorway reminds us that the social and cultural significance of an artwork lies not just in its design but in the material and the making process itself.