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Gradino

An Italian toothed stone-carving chisel, closely related to the gradina, used for shaping and finishing sculpture.

Short Definition

A toothed stone-carving chisel used to establish and refine form.

Difficulty

Intermediate

Language Origin

Italian

Pronunciation

grah-DEE-noh

Gradino is a toothed chisel used in sculpture. Le voci del marmo lists it among tools used for smodellatura, while a Versilia marble-industry publication describes it as a classic iron tool used in sculpture finishing, made in different forms and sizes.

Historical technical sources sometimes treat gradino as a variant or closely related form of gradina.

Etymology

Italian gradino; workshop and historical usage closely related to gradina.

Sculptor Notes

Do not assume every Italian workshop uses gradino and gradina identically. Tool names can shift by period, region, tooth count, and shop practice; preserving the terms separately lets the Lexicon document those distinctions rather than erase them.

References

https://levocidelmarmo.sns.it/lista_video.php; https://cosmave.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/VP131_Ottobre_2022.pdf; https://www.palazzospinelli.org/argomed/scheda-argomed-ita.asp?ID=769