DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42779#0192
FROM ABOUT 540 b.c. TO ABOUT 475 b.c. 133
therefore suggests a saw. The mason’s saw was probably
a semilunar instrument, a simple blade of metal, untoothed
(see above, p. 31) and about an eighth of an inch in thickness.
It might have been used, with emery, as Schrader suggests,
for the central parts of these grooves. But it is difficult to
see how it could have been made to reach up into the top
corner where all the lines of drapery converge. It is possible
to see here a comparison with the striations of the Samian
statues and to presume the use of a stone only. For a stone
could penetrate easily into the top corner without any risk
of overrunning the mark. And its cutting power, assuming
it to have been made of emery, would have been far greater
than that of a saw. Once the line had been traced out,
perhaps with the aid of a ruler, the rest would follow easily.
Stone is invariably a better and more reliable cutter than metal.
We have thus established two distinct methods of cutting
drapery folds—that common to all periods, where the chisel
was used in conjunction with an abrasive and that where only
abrasive was used. The latter method seems to have come
into use in the beginning of the sixth century, and it lasted
long. It illustrates how on occasions the abrasive stone could
do heavy work which no metal tool could do better. The
extreme symmetry of the folds on this particular figure show
how very successful the stone tool could be in the hands of
a skilful sculptor.
Use of drill in the early fifth century. As time went on, how-
ever, and, in the early years of the fifth century, as sculptors
began to experiment with the new tools which had been
introduced in the sixth century, they discovered a new way
of cutting grooves which was destined to last to the end of the
fifth century. The drill, which had been used until 500 b.c.
solely for undercutting drapery and for occasional incidental
work (as in the mouth of the gorgon-head on the Athena
from Eretria: see p. 124) was, as we have seen, further used
for detail in hair. Soon the discovery was made that it could
be used as an alternative to the punch or the flat chisel for
therefore suggests a saw. The mason’s saw was probably
a semilunar instrument, a simple blade of metal, untoothed
(see above, p. 31) and about an eighth of an inch in thickness.
It might have been used, with emery, as Schrader suggests,
for the central parts of these grooves. But it is difficult to
see how it could have been made to reach up into the top
corner where all the lines of drapery converge. It is possible
to see here a comparison with the striations of the Samian
statues and to presume the use of a stone only. For a stone
could penetrate easily into the top corner without any risk
of overrunning the mark. And its cutting power, assuming
it to have been made of emery, would have been far greater
than that of a saw. Once the line had been traced out,
perhaps with the aid of a ruler, the rest would follow easily.
Stone is invariably a better and more reliable cutter than metal.
We have thus established two distinct methods of cutting
drapery folds—that common to all periods, where the chisel
was used in conjunction with an abrasive and that where only
abrasive was used. The latter method seems to have come
into use in the beginning of the sixth century, and it lasted
long. It illustrates how on occasions the abrasive stone could
do heavy work which no metal tool could do better. The
extreme symmetry of the folds on this particular figure show
how very successful the stone tool could be in the hands of
a skilful sculptor.
Use of drill in the early fifth century. As time went on, how-
ever, and, in the early years of the fifth century, as sculptors
began to experiment with the new tools which had been
introduced in the sixth century, they discovered a new way
of cutting grooves which was destined to last to the end of the
fifth century. The drill, which had been used until 500 b.c.
solely for undercutting drapery and for occasional incidental
work (as in the mouth of the gorgon-head on the Athena
from Eretria: see p. 124) was, as we have seen, further used
for detail in hair. Soon the discovery was made that it could
be used as an alternative to the punch or the flat chisel for