Virgin and Child Seated on Clouds with St John the Baptist and an Angel c. 1540

Jan Mone created this relief carving of the Virgin and Child with Saint John and an Angel in the 16th century, using marble. Think about the stone, quarried from the earth, then painstakingly shaped with chisels, rasps, and abrasives. The whiteness we see here wasn't easily won. It is the product of a long, subtractive process, reflecting the artist's ambition to create an ethereal scene with earthly means. Mone was working within a well-established tradition, a history of skilled labor going back millennia. Consider the weight of the marble, its cool, smooth surface, and the way the figures emerge from the cloud-like ground. This wasn't just an aesthetic choice, but a demonstration of technical mastery. The ability to transform a dense material into something seemingly weightless held great cultural significance at this time. By appreciating the making of this artwork, we gain a richer understanding of its meaning, and challenge the traditional distinctions between art, craft, and industry.