{"product_id":"painting-in-stone","title":"Painting in Stone","description":"\u003cb\u003eA sweeping history of premodern architecture told through the material of stone\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Spanning almost five millennia, \u003ci\u003ePainting in Stone\u003c\/i\u003e tells a new history of premodern architecture through the material of precious stone. Lavishly illustrated examples include the synthetic gems used to simulate Sumerian and Egyptian heavens; the marble temples and mansions of Greece and Rome; the painted palaces and polychrome marble chapels of early modern Italy; and the multimedia revival in 19th-century England. Poetry, the lens for understanding costly marbles as an artistic medium, summoned a spectrum of imaginative associations and responses, from princes and patriarchs to the populace. Three salient themes sustained this “lithic imagination”: marbles as images of their own elemental substance according to premodern concepts of matter and geology; the perceived indwelling of astral light in earthly stones; and the enduring belief that colored marbles exhibited a form of natural—or divine—painting, thanks to their vivacious veining, rainbow palette, and chance images.","brand":"Yale University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54222282424664,"sku":"9780300248173","price":43.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780300248173.jpg?v=1780385462","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/painting-in-stone","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}