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Jacquetta Hawkes – A Land

Rodin was one of the sculptors most conscious of the emotion [of sculpture as a process of discovery], and most ready to exploit them. He expressed both aspects of the process-man merging back into the rock, and man detaching himself from it by the power of Iife and mind. He was perhaps inclined to sentimentalize the relationship by dwelling on the softness of the flesh in contrast with the rock's harshness.

This was an irrelevance not dreamt of by the greatest exponent of the feeling -  Michelangelo. It is fitting that the creator of the mighty figures of Night and Day should himself have spent many days in the marble quarries of Tuscany supervising the removal of his material from the side of the mountain. So conscious was he of the individual quality of the marble and of its influence on sculpture and architecture that he was willing to endure a long struggle with the Pope and at last to suffer heavy financial loss by maintaining the superiority of Carrarra over Servezza marble.