The Buddha in Schist
(c) 2005 Andrew Alden, licensed to About.com, Inc. (fair use policy)
The ancient sculptors of India used whatever stone they had. The granite, basalt, sandstone or schist available put limits on the level of detail and structural possibilities. Naturally, beauty is found in every setting and every region. This example, in the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, shows the strength and weakness of schist. Its hardness allows precision cutting, while its mineral foliation imposes a woodlike texture that must be masked with a thick slip, the remnants of which appear under folds and in crevices. For sculptural use, schist must be fine-grained, but even then it cannot take a high polish, and it must have a low mica content to avoid its inherent tendency to split. But carefully selected stone is fit for the highest purposes both structural and devotional.
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