Carving

Carving is a subtractive process in which the material being carved is chipped, gouged, or hammered away from an inert, raw block of material. Wood and stone are the two most common carving materials. For Michelangelo, each stone held within it the secret of what might become a sculpture. But carving is so difficult that even Michelangelo often failed to realize his concept. In his sculpture, "Atlas" Slave, he gave up. The block of stone resists Michelangelo's desire to transform it, as if refusing to release the figure it holds enslaved within it. Atlas, condemned to bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders forever as punishment for challenging the Greek Gods, is literally held captive in the stone. Although unfinished, it portrays a man carrying much weight on his shoulders.