The Mohs hardness of marble is about 3. Although it is not as hard as jade, it is still not easy to carve marble to be as soft as fabric.
The difficulty of the whole work lies not only in the ingenious use of the veiling technique, but also in the portrayal of the skin and expression of the parts of the body where the gauze is in close contact.
The marble - carved gossamer gently covers the woman's face and body. Behind the gossamer, the faintly visible outlines of the figure and the texture of the skin are even more captivating.
In addition to the work "The Veiled Virgin", the "Veiled Christ" jointly completed by Antonio Corradini and Giuseppe Sanmartino is even more shocking.
The entire work was carved from a single block of marble. It depicts the body of Jesus, covered in a veil, being taken down from the cross. Beside the body are the torture instruments used during his crucifixion.
At first, this work was assigned to the sculptor Antonio Corradini to complete. Unfortunately, he passed away right after finishing the clay model. Therefore, the remaining part was completed by the 33-year-old sculptor Giuseppe Sanmartino.
Throughout the entire work, whether it is the application of the veiling technique or the portrayal of the character, it has reached the pinnacle.
In addition to using the veiling technique to convey the soft texture of marble, the sculptor Francesco Queirolo from Italy also impresses people with the rope nets carved from marble.