The Materials of Sculpture surveys the materials used by sculptors across multiple civilizations and historical periods, from ancient Egypt, Greece and China through fifteenth?century Italy, nineteenth?century France and twentieth?century North America. It provides a basic introduction to how these materials were regarded and worked by sculptors, beginning with hard stones worked with abrasives and continuing with marble, softer stones and organic materials such as wood and ivory, then exploring plastic materials like clay, stucco, gesso and wax, and finally describing metal casting and tooling. Each chapter discusses the limitations and challenges specific to a material, including availability, value, durability, versatility, size and color, and considers how artists transferred techniques between media and sought to imitate effects associated with different materials, ultimately questioning assumptions about the relationship between truth and material in sculptural practice. The Materials of Sculpture offers a comprehensive overview of sculptural materials and techniques across cultures and eras, explaining how sculptors select and manipulate various substances to achieve artistic objectives. The book begins by examining the hardest stones and abrasives, then moves on to marble and softer stones, and studies organic materials such as wood and ivory. It further discusses plastic substances including clay, stucco, gesso and wax, both as molded and as modeled materials. The narrative then covers metalworking processes such as casting and tooling, and each section of the book defines the technical and aesthetic challenges specific to the material. By exploring how materials influence artistic expression and how sculptors have adapted techniques across mediums - for example, ivory carving informing porcelain models or wooden sculpture influencing marble carving - Nicholas Penny critically reflects on the educational and conceptual relationship between material and sculptural truth, making the book a key introduction for students and enthusiasts of sculpture and art history. Nicholas Penny is a British art historian and museum curator specializing in Renaissance and Classical sculpture and painting. He has served as Clore Curator of Renaissance Art at the National Gallery, London, and his scholarship includes works on sculpture materials, stylistic evolution and the historical context of European art. Penny is also the author of Church Monuments in Romantic England and co?author of Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture and Raphael. His research often combines meticulous material analysis with broader cultural and historical perspectives.