《石头上的绘画》涵盖近五千年的时间，通过珍贵的石头这种材料讲述了前现代建筑的新历史。插图丰富的例子包括用于模拟苏美尔和埃及天堂的合成宝石；希腊和罗马的大理石庙宇和宅第；意大利现代初期的彩绘宫殿和多色大理石教堂；以及19世纪英国的多媒体复兴。诗歌作为理解昂贵的大理石这一艺术媒介的镜头，引起了一系列富有想象力的联想和反应，从王公贵族到平民百姓。有三个突出的主题支撑着这种 "石器想象力"：根据前现代的物质和地质学概念，大理石代表了他们自己的元素物质的形象；感知到的存在于尘世石头中心的星光；以及持久的信念，即由于彩色大理石活泼的脉络、彩虹色的颜色和偶然的形象，它们表现出一种自然画或神画的形式。

A sweeping history of premodern architecture told through the material of stone

Spanning almost five millennia, Painting in Stone tells a new history of premodern architecture through the material of precious stone. Lavishly illustrated examples include the synthetic gems used to simulate Sumerian and Egyptian heavens; the marble temples and mansions of Greece and Rome; the painted palaces and polychrome marble chapels of early modern Italy; and the multimedia revival in 19th-century England. Poetry, the lens for understanding costly marbles as an artistic medium, summoned a spectrum of imaginative associations and responses, from princes and patriarchs to the populace. Three salient themes sustained this “lithic imagination”: marbles as images of their own elemental substance according to premodern concepts of matter and geology; the perceived indwelling of astral light in earthly stones; and the enduring belief that colored marbles exhibited a form of natural—or divine—painting, thanks to their vivacious veining, rainbow palette, and chance images.