TECHNIQUE
Research questions
In the absence of codified institutional standards, how do we discover the qualitative principles which underpinned stonework in the period? How much agency was afforded to masons and carvers in building production and how were standards maintained? How can we discover more about the training and methods of architectural carvers and of the large-scale workshops needed for projects of scale? How can understanding of these methods and techniques inform contemporary conservation practice?
Image: Demonstration panel showing technique for raising travertine and marble blocks for the construction of the tomb of Cecilia Metella, Rome, from Le Antichità Romane, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1756.