Souffleur, what is 'Alabaster'?

Marjan Debaene, collection manager for Ancient and Old Art. "Alabaster is a stone. It looks like marble but is much softer and therefore easier to work with. Statues and utensils were made from it as early as in ancient times. You can, for example, hollow out alabaster quite easily into vases or pots." 

"From the 13th century onwards, it came into vogue at the French and English courts as a material for funerary monuments. From this courtly context, it seeped through to other elite circles: the nobility, churches and monasteries, rich citizens... It became an exclusive material to sculpt with. You can do with it what you can do with wood, even with the same tools."

"Marble has to be drilled and chiselled and cut - it is much harder to do fine work with it. It is not easy to get hold of: with the exception of Belgian black and red marble, you have to cross the Alps to get it. Alabaster is fairly easy to find in Europe. People think of stone quarries where large blocks are sawn out, but alabaster is extracted from the ground in a kind of nodule."

"It does have one disadvantage: because it is so soft, it is almost water soluble. So you cannot use it outside, because it will erode immediately. You sometimes see alabaster objects that have almost melted away because they were cleaned or washed too much." 

"In October, an exhibition on alabaster as a material for sculpture will open at M. We cover the period from the Middle Ages to the Baroque, the great heyday of alabaster. There will be both monumental pieces and small, virtuoso gems on display. Truly an unprecedented top project, in collaboration with the Louvre. We are really looking forward to it."