Woodcarving

I

Introduction

Woodcarving, art of shaping statues, ornaments, furniture, and utensils out of wood by means of cutting tools, drills, and abrasives. Wood as a medium is light, supple, and workable; it has tensile strength, and separate pieces may be easily joined. Grain and variety of texture gives wood great natural beauty, although it lacks the weight, durability, and monumental quality of stone. Knowledge of the history of woodcarving is distorted by the haphazard survival of artefacts, wood being vulnerable to damp, fire, and the destructive activity of vermin.

A block of wood to be carved is usually first cut and rough-hewn with axes, saws, and knives. Various gouges, chisels, drills, and knives are then used for the detailed carving. Rasps, files, and sandpaper are then used to finish the piece. Carvings may be painted or gilded directly on the surface or over a layer of cloth or plaster. Alternatively, the wood may be left in its natural state and polished.

II

Distribution

The art of woodcarving has been a basic mode of expression, taking different forms according to the sharpness of the tools employed and the hardness and other characteristics of the available wood. It is prevalent in nautical societies, where wood has been used to make and decorate boats, often with images designed to strike terror into enemies. Examples range from the prows of Viking ships to the figureheads of 19th-century European vessels.

Woodcarving was virtually unknown in the Babylonian, Assyrian, and ancient Persian cultures. It was common, however, in Egypt: both the royal images and the ceremonial furniture in the tomb of Tutankhamen, who reigned in the 14th century bc, were fashioned out of wood. Wood was also used for Archaic Greek sculpture, although bronze and stone, being the more durable, came to be preferred.

In northern Europe wood has been an important sculptural medium, especially in Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia. It played a significant role in England and France and formed the backbone of Spanish sculpture from the Romanesque (c. 900-1200) to the Baroque period (c. 1600-1750). Even where carved wood has not played a vital part in figurative sculpture, it has been used almost universally to construct furniture down to the present day.

In the Far East, woodcarving has been a vigorous branch of sculpture, particularly in the art of India, China, and Japan, as seen in carved wooden Buddhas. Richly ornamental carving survives in parts of Indonesia. In Islamic cultures, where depiction of living things is considered impious, wood has been used in elaborate abstract patterns and decorative carvings. The indigenous cultures of the Pacific—Maori, Melanesian, and New Guinean—are noted for their carved woodwork, especially in canoes, domestic architecture, and ceremonial furniture. The Native Americans used wood not only to make weapons, utensils, and masks; the totem poles of the Native American cultures of the north-western coast serve as family and clan emblems and sometimes record hierarchies of gods and animals. African sculpture, which consists chiefly of woodcarvings, is remarkable for its ceremonial masks and idols.

III

Early Uses in Europe

After the neglect of wood for sculpture throughout the Graeco-Roman world, the carved cypress doors of the Church of Santa Sabina (5th century ad) in Rome mark the beginnings of a new tradition of Christian narrative sculpture. In northern Europe, this was easily assimilated by the Vikings, who had long carved interlaced patterns and imaginary beasts into their ships and wooden buildings. By about the year 1000, solemn images of the seated Virgin and Child and of Christ on the cross (usually flanked by standing figures of Mary and St John mourning) abounded in churches. Wood, because of its lightness compared to stone, was favoured for the crucifixion groups that were set on a beam or rood screen across the entrance to the chancel. The style of these figures, elongated and confined within roughly cylindrical shapes, was partly dictated by the natural shape of the trunk or branch of a tree.

IV

Gothic Woodcarving

From the Gothic period, many of the increasingly elaborate furnishings of churches were carved out of wood: choir stalls and canopies, screens, pulpits, and lecterns. Tip-up choir seats known as misericords, often installed in English cathedrals, were carved with a fascinating repertory of medieval symbolism, both sacred and profane. In Flanders, Germany, and Spain, the tradition of retables—narrative panels of carving or painting (usually devoted to the life of Christ or of a saint) set in elaborately carved frames—for altarpieces was established in the 15th century and survived well into the Baroque period. These were usually equipped with painted and carved wooden wings that could be closed in front like the doors of a cupboard, both for protection and for concealment. Antwerp, Brussels, and Malines were famous centres of production that exported retables all over Europe. In the Middle Ages, carved wood often formed the core of items such as reliquary busts of saints, which were coated with sheets of precious metal and studded with gems. By the 16th century, the increasing size and importance of church organs made them a focus of carved decoration. In secular life, coaches for royalty and other dignitaries began to be lavishly carved.

In the 15th century, woodcarving, like other art forms, ceased to be anonymous, and individual artists can be identified. A figure of St George (Stockholm Cathedral) by the German sculptor Bernt Notke is remarkable; Veit Stoss and Tilman Riemenschneider, also Germans, were unequalled in their mastery. Indeed, the solemn, ovoid faces of Riemenschneider's female figures characterize southern German sculpture of about 1500. In the Rhineland and Swabia the physical properties of lime wood determined an art style of complex undercut drapery folds swinging free from the figure. This construction minimized the risk of splitting as the wood swelled and contracted with changes in humidity. Also fashionable in Germany and the Netherlands were small statues carved out of close-grained woods, such as box and pear. These date from the late 15th century to the Baroque period; Stoss and his followers contributed numerous miniature masterpieces.