Marble has been the preferred material for stone monumental sculpture since ancient times, with several advantages over its more common geological "parent" limestone, in particular the ability to absorb light a small distance into the surface before refracting it in subsurface scattering.

[3] Of the many different types of marble the pure white ones are generally used for sculpture, with coloured ones preferred for many architectural and decorative uses.

[5] Carrara marble from northern Italy was used by the Romans, and very extensively up to recent decades, when the pure white statuario grade more or less ran out.

[6] Marble is a metamorphic rock derived from limestone, composed mostly of calcite (a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, CaCO3).

The original source of the parent limestone is the seabed deposition of calcium carbonate in the form of microscopic animal skeletons or similar materials.

It is this translucency that gives a marble sculpture a visual depth beyond its surface and this evokes a certain realism when used for figurative works.

[7] Marble sculptors must be careful when handling their materials, as the stone can absorb skin oils and develop yellow or brown stains.

In Thomas Ridgeway Gould's The West Wind, for example, he poised the figure's short and slender ankles delicately upon the balls of her small feet.

Other artists sculpt a preliminary model out of clay or wax and then translate its features to stone through the use of calipers or a pointing machine.

Sculptors use a variety of fine, abrasive materials such as sandpaper or emery paper to highlight patterns in the stone and to accentuate its natural sheen.

When the hammer connects with the striking end of the chisel, its energy is transferred down the length and concentrates on a single point on the surface of the block, breaking the stone.

Some contemporary sculptors use advanced robots and automation software to help them create carved works in marble.

“The data drives computer-controlled, stone-carving machines that use diamond and carbide bits that slowly mill away a rough version of the sculpture,” described New York sculptor Barry X Ball in a 2020 interview.

“Then, we take it from there.” Ball's sculpture Sleeping Hermaphrodite required 10,000 hours of hand-sculpting after the initial robot sculpting phase was completed.

In a 2021 article, art historian Marco Ciampolini stated that many of history's greatest artists, including Michelangelo, delegated work to apprentices, and that the only difference between that practice and the use of digital automation is the fact that modern-day helpers are robots, rather than humans.