{"product_id":"painting-in-stone-book-fabio-barry-9780300248173","title":"Painting in Stone","description":"A sweeping history of premodern architecture told through the material of stone   Spanning almost five millennia, Painting in Stone 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":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49740052791569,"sku":"NGR9780300248173","price":34.39,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0300248172.jpg?v=1762339668","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/products\/painting-in-stone-book-fabio-barry-9780300248173","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}