and whatever he can draw and shadow he can model (or _vice versâ_); and
whatever he can model, he can execute in wood; nor would the working it
out in sheet brass or leather trouble him at all. This is the best way
to work, so much the best that, under all circumstances, and in spite
of all drawbacks, every wood-carver should strive with all his heart to
learn to draw and model; for in so doing he will learn a great deal more
than all three of these cuts put together, for he will most assuredly
have acquired a faculty which will help him in anything which he may
undertake.
Having learned to sketch out, bost, and round simple figures, I advise
the pupil to execute a number of them, with or without leaves and
ornaments. He may thus sketch and cut fishes, animals of all kinds,
human figures in outline, until he feels a certain confidence and ease
as regards their execution.
What the pupil must do, therefore, in this lesson, is to draw, bost out,
and round easy animal forms. At this stage let him pay more attention
to the few points which constitute general correctness in a sketch than
to minor details. I refer to the general distances of the eyes, joints,
outlines of legs and back in a horse, deer, hog, etc.
[Illustration: Fig. 48 _a_.]
[Illustration: Fig. 48 _b_.]
Simple figures may be executed in flat or ribbon-work, or in the lowest
relief, as well as in any other work.
The Italian carvers, for cabinet making, in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, made great use of _figurini_, Fig. 49, also the ornament on
page 60. These were little statues, generally of human beings, from
three to five inches in length. They were, in ordinary work, rather
sketched out than elaborately carved, but the effect was good; sometimes
a hundred of them would be worked into a single cabinet. These
_figurini_ were also very freely used in later Roman and Roman Byzantine
stone and ivory work, generally as rows of saints or scriptural
personages, every one filling a niche under a round arch. These latter
were often as rudely and simply shaped as it is possible to conceive,
yet, owing to their "making up" or disposition, as subordinate parts
they were in good taste. Any carver with a little practice can produce
them. Rows of _figurini_ in niches were frequently used for borders, or
to surround caskets.
[Illustration: HANGING BOX FOR A CORNER.]
[Illustration]
TENTH LESSON.
FINISHING OFF--IMITATION OF OLD AND WORN WORK--WHERE POLISHING IS
REQUIRED.
The finishing off of wood-carving depends on what the work in hand may
be. If it is a piece of carefully executed foliage, or leaves (and
leaves, like _crochets_ in decorative art, is a term widely applied to
all shooting out or growing ornaments), it is of course the best plan to
finish only with the gouge or chisel, so that the skill of the artist in
clean cutting may be evident. But it has become the fashion for writers
on wood-carving to insist on it, as a law without exception, that all
wood-carving must be finished by cutting; that glass-paper and files
should on no account be used, and that a carver should not seek to
smooth over the surface of his carving, as if to conceal how his work
has been executed. In wood-carving, as in everything else, a true artist
does not go by mere rule. He uses what tools he pleases, and finishes as
he pleases. He does not confine his work to a single kind, and declare
that everything should be limited to that in which he or certain experts
excel. An examination of the beautiful and curious wood-carving in the
great hall in Venice will convince any one that other things as well
as leaves may be carved in wood; and that when these represent, for
instance, old books with metal clasps, or household utensils, or arms,
imitation may be legitimately carried so far as to polish the surface.
Again, it may very often occur to the artist to imitate old and worn
objects, such as a pilgrim's bottle, a casket or horn, for age in this
way often gives very beautiful and curious effects of light and shadow,
polish or roughness, differing very much and very advantageously from
the stereotyped uniformity of style of too many schools. All of this
requires a wide departure from the no-polish theory.
[Illustration: Fig. 49.]
The truth is that the beginner should indeed _learn_ to cut clean and
well, and to do all his work with an edge, without files or glass-paper,
but there is no law why he should go no further. A great deal of the
beauty of many old objects comes from a certain worn look, by which they
have lost some crude defects. We will now consider how such polish may
be given.
Draw on a panel half an inch thick, more or less, Fig. 49. Having bosted
it out, _very_ slightly undercut the figure, not completely, but by
rounding the edge a little. Do this firstly with the chisel, as neatly
as possible; then take files. For many places in your work, especially
for smoothing grounds where the work is difficult and the curved tool
not available, a bent file is most useful, and these may be had of
every shape and curve. For rough finishing you may use rasps and large
rifflers, for finer work small files. Having brought your work into
shape, you may scrape the ground flat with pieces of broken glass or a
tool made for the purpose, or a chisel. Then take glass or glass-paper,
the former being greatly preferable, and with care finish still more. It
may now be advisable to oil all the carving, if oil is to be applied.
Lay the oil on with a broad flat brush, but if there are any places
which it will not reach, use a smaller paint or camel's hair pencil.
Let the oil soak in for a few days in a warm room. Then with a piece
of very soft pine wood, rub with great care. The harder you rub the
better the polish will be, but also the greater the risk of bending or
indenting the surface of the carving; therefore great care is necessary.
The longer this polishing is continued the better the effect will be.
Workmen often spend as much time in polishing a piece of work intended
to be handled as it took to carve it.
It may be observed that in using the glass-paper it is often very
difficult to get into certain holes or cavities. These are reached
either by making a bit of the paper into a roll, or by folding or
rolling it around the end of a stick cut for the purpose. But the
most effective way of all is to take a stick, say of the size of a
lead pencil, or according to the cavity, round the end with a gouge
and glass-paper, dip the end into glue, and, while it is moist, into
powdered glass. When dry these make admirable finishers, and they can be
again dipped when the glass begins to wear off. Glass may in this manner
be put on the ends of old bent files.
When there are figures of animals, or leaves, or bands intended to be
thus finished and polished _all'antico_, or to resemble worn work, it is
not advisable to put in them too much inside work or _in-lines_. Inside
work is, for instance, the feathers on a bird, the hair on an animal,
the scales on a fish, the middle lines and veins of leaves. A very few
lines to serve as indications must suffice. But the student of old and
time-worn carving cannot fail to draw all these conclusions for himself.
The last finish to be given to such work may be executed by rubbing
with the hand. This communicates to certain kinds of wood and other
substances a peculiar polish, which nothing else can really give.
In a very large proportion of simple flat or ribbon-work the effect is
very much increased or improved by polishing the pattern, and leaving
the ground rough or indenting it. This is not only perfectly legitimate,
but commonly done in marble or metal _repoussé_ of every kind, as well
as leather-work, and yet every writer on wood-carving repeats as a
duty the injunction that there must be "no polishing," and nothing but
cutting. This is, indeed, equivalent to prohibiting the application of
wood-carving to furniture, objects to be handled, house and many other
kinds of decoration. But, in fact, there are instances in decoration in
which paint or dyes, French polish, nails or other metal work, may be
most artistically and beautifully combined with wood-carving, as many
thousands of relics of the Middle Ages and Renaissance prove.
Polishing a pattern makes it shine, while roughing or dotting a surface
darkens it. Therefore, when we want in decoration bold effects of light
and shade, we may legitimately polish the parts which are in relief.
Elaborately cut work which is to be studied by itself in detail, and not
simply as a part of a whole, need not be polished or rough; its finish
will depend on the conditions of its design.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
ELEVENTH LESSON.
DIAPER-WORK--STAMPED DIAPER-PATTERNS--CUTTING DIAPERS.
That which is called diaper-work is where the ground consists of one
generally small pattern frequently repeated at regular intervals. It
is so called from the well-known diaper or figured linen cloth, from
the Old French _diapré_, meaning the same, from the verb _diapréz_,
to diaper, or "diversifie with flourishings" (Cotgrave). The verb,
according to Skeat, is from the Old French _diaspre_, later _jasper_, a
stone much used for ornamental jewellery. Italian, _diaspro_, a jasper.
"_Diaper_, to decorate with a variety of colours, or to embroider on a
rich ground" (Anglo-Norman). "There was a rich figured cloth so called"
(Strutt, ii. 6), as "also a kind of printed linen" (Halliwell). The
latter are still common. It is, however, most probable that the word
really comes, as Fairholt asserts, from Ypres, _i.e._, d'Ypres, which
was famous for such work. Some writers apply the term to merely dotting,
indenting, or roughening a ground, but it is properly applicable to
small figures.
STAMPED DIAPER PATTERNS. These may be produced firstly and most readily
by means of wood, stamped or punched, Fig. 23 and 27, and a hammer or
mallet. Practise with these first on waste wood. It is not at first
easy to repeat them at perfectly regular intervals, making one the same
as the other. The work is greatly facilitated by drawing lines like
a chequer or chess-board on the ground, and making a stamp or diaper
in every dot, or all along the lines. Punches for this purpose may be
had in great variety. This class of stamped work is very effective for
narrow edgings and borders, and on fillets, which would otherwise be
tedious and difficult to carve. With but little practice this work can
be executed with great rapidity.
CUTTING DIAPERS. There are some patterns which are very easily cut with
a single tool, as, for instance, squares, diamonds, and triangles. For
these a firmer or chisel is sufficient. The reader will observe that one
square, etc., is removed alternately, and another left. In designing or
selecting these, or any diapers, care must be taken to choose such as
fit together exactly. But any figures of this kind, whatever they are,
are well adapted for grounds.
A more advanced style of diaper-work is made by cutting lines with the
parting-tool or smallest gouge, unless, indeed, you are expert enough to
do it with a chisel or firmer.
[Illustration: Fig. 50.
A SINGLE DIAPER REPEATED.]
This was the commonest kind of diapering on caskets in the Middle Ages.
A very pretty effect was often produced by filling these lines with
dark brown or black paint. In any case, when oiled, or as they grew old,
and dust and oil or moisture worked into them, they became dark. It has
already been said that any kind of mere _line_-work can be executed on
a smooth wooden surface by means of a V tool, or generally by a small
gouge. It may also be effected with a tracing-wheel, or with a tracer,
or with any rather dull-pointed instrument. In hard wood of a light
colour very beautiful effects may thus be produced.
The next step is to cut lines, and combine with these cutting out and
excavating spaces, as in ordinary carving. Nevertheless, it is not, as
a rule, a good plan to make diapers too ornamental or elaborate; for
this will lead to making them large, and then they will draw attention
from the pattern, if there is one, or the main figures. When the whole
surface is all diaper, as in a carpet, the diapers may be as large and
as elaborate as one chooses to make them.
There is but one general rule for designing the diaper. Draw a
chess-board, and then by diagonals convert these into "points up and
down," squares, or triangles; or fill the equal spaces with equilateral
triangles, hexagons, circles, or pentagons, etc.[1] These may be filled
in with any suitable decoration. In Fig. 50 portions of the original
surface of the panel have been left as ridges to separate the diapers,
and then every one of the latter has been carved with the same ornament;
a rather advanced example, but cut only in moderate relief. Another
plate, Fig. 52, gives a variety of suitable figures in low relief; some
two or three of these should be chosen and repeated in regular order in
neighbouring spaces.
[1] To draw these and ornament them, consult "Drawing and
Designing," by C. G. Leland; London, Whittaker and Co.
[Illustration: Fig. 51.
A VARIETY OF DIAPER PATTERNS.]
Where the main object is simple decoration of surfaces, plain
diaper-cutting is an important industry, and one by means of which, with
no very great degree of skill, beautiful results may be obtained. Thus,
large pieces of furniture, chests, and especially walls or wainscoats,
may be expeditiously adorned by means of it, even by one who is far
from being able to carve in the round or cut leaves. It may be very
much facilitated in many ways. One of these is to cut out the patterns
in duplicate, many at once in paper, paste them on the wood, and carve
round them. Then wet the paper, and thoroughly remove it with a stiff
brush. Another plan is to cut out the pattern in card-board, thin brass,
or wood, and stencil it with a lead pencil or colour which will wash
off. Then cut away as before. It is extremely easy, when we have once
cut a certain figure a few times, to go on repeating it, and beginners
can, therefore, with great advantage, be set at diaper-cutting, since
they thereby acquire not only a familiarity with the use of the tools,
but by dint of repetition familiarize themselves perfectly with at least
one process; for the greatest trouble in all arts and studies is, that
they do not, at any early step, sufficiently master any one thing.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
TWELFTH LESSON.
BUILDING-UP, OR APPLIQUÉ WORK.
It will often happen that in carving, while most of the work is on a
level, some portion, generally the centre, will rise above the rest, or
project beyond it, illustrated by Fig. 52. It would often be a waste of
wood and time to cut this out of a single piece. In such cases we merely
glue an extra piece of wood on, and carve it into shape. Sometimes in
carving a face, only the nose, and perhaps the chin, require to be
added. It is said that this method of gluing wood on to wood to obtain
additional relief was first extensively practised by Grinling Gibbons.
In Germany this addition of a central "boss" is so well understood,
that in many shops they sell heads or faces of men, women, or animals,
wreaths, and similar centres or bosses for carvers who can execute
flat or ribbon-work, but not high relief. In this way very ornamental
or showy pieces of work may be executed with the least possible pains
and expense. In the same manner a piece of old carving, or, it may
be, several pieces, are taken or saved from some half-ruined ancient
specimen, and well glued on a sound piece of old wood exactly like them
in colour and texture. This is then carved in the same style. In this
way really valuable work may be easily made, for such half-decayed
pieces of old carving are too often thrown away, and may often be
purchased for a trifle.
Still, this method of _appliqué_, or applied wood on wood, though it
may be resorted to in certain cases to save a great deal of cutting
and material, may be carried too far, when it degenerates into mere
manufacture.
_Appliqué_ work of this kind falls still further into manufacture when
it consists of thin boards, cut into patterns with a fret or scroll-saw,
worked up with gouges, and then glued on wood. This is plain imitation.
Yet it may be borne in mind, though most writers on the subject deny it,
that while it is absolutely _not_ high or legitimate art, there is no
law and no reason against it; and if a man can contrive no better way
to ornament his house, he is perfectly in the right in doing so, if he
thinks fit. And if he can afford the time, skill, and materials, he will
probably advance from _appliqué_ work to something better. In any case
he will have learned something by it, and it is worth learning. It is
too often the case with high art critics, that they exact that everybody
_must_ have finished taste and _high_ perceptions all at once, with no
regard to expense.
[Illustration: Fig. 52. APPLIQUÉ WORK.
DRAGON IN THIN WOOD, APPLIQUÉ ON A DIAPER GROUND.]
The pupil may now attempt an easy piece of _appliqué_ work. Take a
panel, Fig. 52, and trace on it the pattern. Leave a blank flat space
of the original surface, called the "seat," for the figures, of their
precise size, and then work out the ground. Where this consists of
a _diaper_, it may be made either by carving or by stamping. Having
finished the diapered ground, saw or cut out the figures, glue them
into their places, and carve them; or the carving may be executed before
the application.
_Appliqué_ work is liable to the objection, especially where large
surfaces are laid on, that two pieces of wood are seldom of _precisely_
the same quality and texture, and that, therefore, they may sometimes
afterwards shrink or swell in different directions, with the natural
result of warping and splitting. This is sometimes remedied by using
screws as well as glue; but the best preventive of such accidents is to
cut both the ground and the piece glued on to it from the same piece of
wood, of course perfectly seasoned.
In many cases frames or borders may be _appliqué_ or glued on. If the
work be intended for an album or book-cover, the frame may be made
a trifle higher than the central ornament, to protect it from being
scratched when lying with the face on any surface. This will not be
necessary if it be used for a panel in the side of a box or in a wall.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THIRTEENTH LESSON.
CARVING IN THE ROUND.
Carving in the round is cutting an object which is finished on every
side, as a bust or statue. It is in fact "statuary." It seems to be
very difficult work to a beginner, but the pupil who has mastered the
rudiments which are laid down in this book, and who can measure and
cut a low relief of an inch, or a high relief pattern of two or three
inches, will find no trouble whatever in carving something small in the
round, and in progressing from this to something larger. The steps in
wood-carving from hammering an indented pattern to carving a statue are
perfectly defined, and very easy if they are thoroughly mastered one at
a time.
Carving in the round will be least difficult to the one who can model
his work in clay or modelling-wax. This is especially easy if he
alternates carving with designing and modelling; it is, in fact, so
great an aid to carving, that there should be little of the latter
without it. He who has modelled anything in clay or wax has, in a way,
carved it in a soft material, while true carving is only modelling with
gouges and chisels.
There is no difficulty for one who has mastered the first six lessons of
this book, in carving half a duck or fish in relief. If he could carve
the other side and join them he would have the animal complete. From
blocking out simple forms, such as ducks, fish, hares, or game, in high
relief, the carver soon learns how to "rough" almost anything. Having
made a bust in clay, he knows where a bit is to be removed or cut away
here or there. He studies it as he proceeds, alternately in profile or
full-face, and continually measures with callipers and compasses to see
that he is preserving all the proportions. The practice which he has
had in delicately carving, grooving, sweeping, and modelling leaves,
in cutting the hair of game, imitating basket-work, etc., will all now
come into play. As regards fitting certain tools to form the eye-balls,
eye-lids, etc., if the pupil does not as yet know the measure and
capacity of his tools, he has worked to little purpose. If he should
be in doubt from time to time, let him just carve an eye, or a lip,
or mouth, on a piece of waste wood, and he will have no difficulty in
repeating it; and he who grudges the time for such practice will never
make an artist, Fig. 53.
The great difficulty in carving in deep relief and in the round, is to
get the general sweep and contour and proportions of the _whole_, and
this is difficult for a pupil who does not design, and shade, and model,
while it is a mere trifle to one who does. The cutting and blocking out,
which seems to be the great difficulty, is a merely mechanical process,
performed with compasses, carving tools, and rasps, and sometimes with
a steel bow-saw, here and there. And it presents no difficulties to any
intelligent person who has carefully executed all that is described
in the previous lessons, especially to one who has carved animals and
simple figures, or faces, in high relief.
[Illustration: Fig. 53. HIGH RELIEF. Design by C. G. Leland.]
It is true that in shops where much large and coarse work is executed,
as, for instance, great pieces for ceilings, figures for façades, and
the like, the sculptor, trained from the beginning to the sweep-cut and
to bold chipping, makes little account of any difficulty, and proceeds
to carve with great confidence. Now what the student must endeavour to
attain is some of the confidence of the mere workman with the culture
and knowledge of the artist. And he should, whenever an opportunity
presents itself, try to see practical carvers of all kinds at work, for
in this way he will learn much which no books give.
It is to be recommended that the first attempts at carving in the round
be made in soft pine wood, as it is of course most easily modelled. No
one should be discouraged because a first or second effort has turned
out a failure.
I have observed that many writers on the art treat carving in high
relief, or in the round, as if the first effect in it must necessarily
be a human head or figure, that is to say, the most difficult of all
objects. But he who can cut out a wooden shoe, or a rabbit, or a fish,
or the simplest object, on a large scale, on all its sides, will, if
he repeats this till he can do it easily, have mastered the greatest
difficulty which alarms beginners, that of _blocking out_ from all
sides.
In the head by Civitale, full half-round, which may easily be made
full round, the carver may begin by modelling the whole. If this is
not convenient, let him mark out with the compasses the different
dimensions, and carefully bring the whole into form by first rounding
all into a rude shape, and then very gradually cut away the hollows.
No detailed descriptions of exactly what tools to choose for certain
places, or how to work, would be of any real use to the pupil who
has carefully executed the previous lessons, as he will not have
a single cut which he has not made before, and in this instance a
little voluntary ingenuity and reflection will do more good than any
instruction.
[Illustration: HEAD, BY CIVITALE. _P. 82._]
APPENDIX TO LESSON XIII.
ON THE USE OF THE SAW.
(_By John J. Holtzapffel._)
The steel buhl saw-frame (Fig. 16) may be very usefully employed for
removing many of the superfluous portions of the material in the
earliest stages of carving in the round, as in large or small figurini,
and for those parts which have to be cut away to leave the outlines or
margins between leaves and other ornaments in flat works. In such cases
it is to be recommended, for its use not only saves much time, but also
the risk of breakages, to which the work is very liable when these
portions have to be removed entirely with the carving-tool.