The notes that carved the marble

The notes that carved the marble

Ioannis Michail
Illustration-artistic design by Sofia Fortoma
Athens 2022, 32 pp.
ISBN 978-960-244-222-7
€ 13,50



The publication of the children’s book titled The notes that carved the marble by Ioannis Michail, with illustrations and artistic design by Sofia Fortoma, is related to the art of marble and the Museum of Marble Crafts in Pyrgos, Tinos.

In a village on an island of the Aegean, young Konstantis tries to solve a mystery: how is the marble carved by the musical notes that tools of the marble crafters create? Curiosity leads him to the “magical” world of marble crafting, a world inextricably related to the world of music. And so, Konstantis discovers and reveals that…. “marble and music always go together”!

Ioannis Michail, the author of the book, due to his relationship with the village of Pyrgos on Tinos, set the stage for the story with immediacy and tenderness, with the images and the sounds of his land. Painter-illustrator Sofia Fortoma renders her visual narrative with watercolours, sensitively composing fictional and realistic elements.   Having experiences and images from daily life in the Aegean area, and in particular the centre of marble craftsmanship, Pyrgos, she conveys the atmosphere of the Cycladic landscape and the marble workshops, with the craftsmen, their tools and their works.