DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42779#0235
170 FOR WORKS IN HARD AND SOFT STONE
the same way. In the pages that follow I shall attempt to
summarize all that can at present be discovered about the
actual instruments used in the cutting, working, and finishing
of statues in marble, in soft stones and in wood. The
chronological conclusions about the various tools, that is to
say, the attempt in each case to establish the period or periods
in which they were individually in use must, as has already
been said, be considered as conclusions drawn from available
evidence which may in some cases have to be revised in the
light of evidence still to be discovered. They must be looked
on as provisional conclusions.
i. The Square. This, the ordinary carpenter’s square, might
be assumed to have been one of the preliminary instruments
by which the sculptor, especially in the archaic period, made
certain that his frontal and lateral planes in a round sculpture
were correct. But assumptions form no part of a sound
analysis of ancient methods. It is, therefore, satisfactory to
find that specific record of its use is found in a curious
sculptured relief which is cut in the native rock in the Cave
of Vari on Hymettus (referred to above, p. 95). This relief
forms part of a series of sculptures and inscriptions which
were apparently cut by a certain Archedemos of Thera who
resided in the cave in the beginning of the fifth century.1
Even so his sculptures seem old-fashioned even for this date.
The sculpture that concerns us is a low relief in two planes
cut in the rock just below the hewn stairs that lead from
above down into the cave. It is extremely difficult to photo-
graph, but the illustration here given, though taken from an
angle (Fig. 55), is as accurate a version of it as it is possible
to get. Here a sculptor, probably Archedemos himself, is
seen clumsily rendered. He wears a simple exomis girt at the
waist, and falling in folds to his knees. His head, which is
badly preserved, faces the right, but the direction of his
stance or movement is the opposite way. It is consequently
1 See A.J.A., 1903, pp. 263 ff.
the same way. In the pages that follow I shall attempt to
summarize all that can at present be discovered about the
actual instruments used in the cutting, working, and finishing
of statues in marble, in soft stones and in wood. The
chronological conclusions about the various tools, that is to
say, the attempt in each case to establish the period or periods
in which they were individually in use must, as has already
been said, be considered as conclusions drawn from available
evidence which may in some cases have to be revised in the
light of evidence still to be discovered. They must be looked
on as provisional conclusions.
i. The Square. This, the ordinary carpenter’s square, might
be assumed to have been one of the preliminary instruments
by which the sculptor, especially in the archaic period, made
certain that his frontal and lateral planes in a round sculpture
were correct. But assumptions form no part of a sound
analysis of ancient methods. It is, therefore, satisfactory to
find that specific record of its use is found in a curious
sculptured relief which is cut in the native rock in the Cave
of Vari on Hymettus (referred to above, p. 95). This relief
forms part of a series of sculptures and inscriptions which
were apparently cut by a certain Archedemos of Thera who
resided in the cave in the beginning of the fifth century.1
Even so his sculptures seem old-fashioned even for this date.
The sculpture that concerns us is a low relief in two planes
cut in the rock just below the hewn stairs that lead from
above down into the cave. It is extremely difficult to photo-
graph, but the illustration here given, though taken from an
angle (Fig. 55), is as accurate a version of it as it is possible
to get. Here a sculptor, probably Archedemos himself, is
seen clumsily rendered. He wears a simple exomis girt at the
waist, and falling in folds to his knees. His head, which is
badly preserved, faces the right, but the direction of his
stance or movement is the opposite way. It is consequently
1 See A.J.A., 1903, pp. 263 ff.