They are easy to quarry shape and polish compared to other popular stone type of ancient.
Why use marble for greek sculpture.
Architectural sculpture was mostly marble ie statues stuck to the sides of buildings.
The properties of marble and its uses very few rocks have as many uses as marble.
Hardness and weight are primary reason marble has been used across many civilization.
Marble sculpture is a cornerstone of art history.
Typical marble weigh about a half of granite of same size and lot softer.
The ancient greeks left a legacy of transformative sculptural works that reached for unprecedented naturalism in hellenistic gems such as venus de milo and nike of samothrace.
They used marble for some of them.
It is used for its chemical properties in pharmaceuticals and agriculture.
Probably the most popular material used in sculpture marble s translucency and durability has made it the medium of choice for all the greatest sculptors including greek artists like phidias myron polykleitos and praxiteles as well as their successors donatello michelangelo bernini canova and rodin.
The other favoured material in greek sculpture was bronze.
The reality is that the greek marble works were.
Unfortunately this material was always in demand for re use in later periods whereas broken marble is not much use to anyone and so marble sculpture has better survived for posterity.
Marble is not a color but rather a type of rock.
Large works of the archaic period were more or less all made from stone.
It is used for its beauty in architecture and sculpture.