For the sculptor wood is only one of the media in which he works. Stone, cement, plaster, wax, metals, and in recent years plastics, are some of the diverse materials that come under his hand. He is likely to have a bias towards certain media, a liking for one or the other. During some periods he will prefer one medium, or circumstances may alter his course of work.
To make a living as a sculptor he will often have to be ready to tackle any material. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it widens his powers and experience. He would be a superman if he knew all the answers to all questions involved in the use of every tool and all materials in such a wide field. He is gathering knowledge all the time but never knows it all. He may not do more than one wood carving a year but because of his natural aptitude for design and appreciation of form he can produce sculpture in wood.
The wood carver specialist, on the other hand, carves wood all day and every day, and is usually quite an expert at carpentry. He may be attached to a firm of wood carvers or run such a workshop himself. His skill is admirable. He can carve the most complicated ornament with sureness and dexterity.
In the speed of carving ornament he can make rings round many sculptors. He is chiefly concerned with traditional wood carving design and is engaged in copying and restoration work. He does not make his living by creating new works of art but by repeating forms already established.
From the aesthetic point of view it can be argued that there is an over-emphasis on craftsmanship to the detriment of creative work, and the cleavage between such craftsmen and sculptors may be great, and not easily bridged. We can look back to a time in Europe in the fifteenth century when the wood carver was carpenter, designer and creative artist in one, an ideal state of affairs.
There is perhaps little profit in looking back and if we then look at things as they are now in America, we can say there are pockets where traditional wood carving is pursued and native skill and craftsmanship flourishes.
THE HUMAN FIGURE
From earliest times the human anatomy has been studied and used by the artist. Canons of proportion have been worked out by the Egyptians and the Greeks. The study of the living and the dead in humans and animals has been part of the artist's experience for many centuries. This interest waxed and waned. The great artists of the Renaissance such as Leonardo da Vinci dissected the human body in a spirit of scientific discovery.
Dissection would certainly be repugnant to most artists today. Perhaps the spirit of inquiry is less intense. George Stubbs (1724-1806), the great English painter was the last artist anatomist to undertake exhaustive research in this field. The study of the living model is still a valuable part of the student's training today. This and the study of works of art is the food his creative power needs in order to grow.
The beginner who wishes to carve figures would certainly profit by some drawing from the model. If it is not possible to attend classes, he should draw his family and friends. An anatomy book is of little use unless allied to observation of people. In books you will find the average proportions of men, women and children. This does not mean that your aim should be to carve the average man. To work with the latter concept in mind is likely to produce the dullest work.
We can say that knowledge and interest in structure is valuable but that all such knowledge must be re-created by the artist. In the stone figures on Chartres Cathedral in France we see elongation of the figure, the head enlarged and the shoulders narrow. Here we have a superb example of sculpture and architecture perfectly related.
The wood carver is able to carve any subject he can think of, but the human figure is a very good place to start. Good luck!
Wood is a perishable material and has not the same continuous history as stone. Ancient stone carvings are still unearthed; Greek bronzes are still being fished out of the sea. But wood will not survive neglect and must be specially cared for if it is to endure. There are many gaps - many civilizations which have no wood carvings to represent them.
The earliest sculptures that still exist are of bone and baked clay, stone and bronze, but there can be no doubt that prehistoric man carved wood - even if only for his axe-handles. He lived in the forests; fallen trees would be more plentiful than suitable pieces of stone.
But wood can only survive in favorable conditions, and so far as is yet known, Egypt is the only country where these have existed. Eleven wooden relief panels were found there in 1860, having been preserved by the drifting sands for over four thousand years, and they are believed to be the oldest in the world. They were discovered in the tomb of Pharaoh Hesy-Ra at Sakkara, and each measures about two feet by one foot six inches. The figure of the Pharaoh is portrayed in the typical Egyptian pose, finely drawn and sensitively carved.
The Egyptians went on using child-like conventions long after they could have dispensed with them. Egyptian art being entirely religious, the conviction was that all art-forms, like all the rites and ceremonies, had been laid down by the gods in ancient times, and could never be altered. There is nothing peculiarly Egyptian about this; right down to the present day, many religions have maintained a strict conservatism in form and ceremony.
The earliest three-dimensional wooden figures yet discovered date from 2500 B.C. Three were found at Sakkara, and the most famous of Realistic portrait-heads for the statues were at all times considered essential. The sculptor was required to carve an 'imitation man' to be inhabited by the soul after death.
Wood was scarce in Egypt, and the acacia and sycamore, the only trees growing there suitable for carving, were so precious as to be considered sacred. In countries where there are forests, wood is sometimes used as a cheaper substitute for rare and precious materials.
Egypt had a different scale of values, judging by an observation in a letter from a minor king to a Pharaoh in 2000 B.C. 'In your country, gold is as common as dust . . .' Wood was used for royal statues as well as for less important figures, such as courtiers, officials, priests, scribes and architects. Relief panels were always in wood or limestone.
The wood carvings were placed in the elaborate tombs, where, it was believed, the Pharaoh would live on, so long as his embalmed body lay there undisturbed. He was surrounded by all the things he would need to take with him into the next life, and his servants were represented by little figures engaged in all kinds of farm and domestic work. Many of these are in wood, and some of the most remarkable are of women with long narrow figures and long skirts, walking upright and carrying baskets of offerings on their heads.
Wood was used for many purposes besides statues: for thrones, coffins and furniture of all kinds, and for the inner cores of metal statues. A figure was carved in wood and then covered with thin sheets of gold, copper or bronze, hammered on to its shape and fastened with nails. Every nation has found its way toward the craft of hollow casting in bronze by first using the wooden-core method.
After lasting almost continuously for over two thousand years, Egypt's power began to decline in about 1000 B.C., and was finally broken by a series of foreign conquests. But, although the long tradition of art also declined, nothing could subdue the strong, characteristic style of the Egyptians, and it was adopted by each conquering nation in turn - even the Greeks and the Romans. Only in A.D. 638 with the Arab conquest did the art of Egypt finally come to an end.
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