DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42779#0243
176 FOR WORKS IN HARD AND SOFT STONE
inspection will show when the punch was used almost at
right angles and when it was used more obliquely. The
unfinished torso in the National Museum at Athens1 shows
the marks made by both modes of striking.
It might be considered as axiomatic that the sculptor uses
the heavy punch rather in the manner of the trimming-
hammer with force and at right angles in the earlier stages,
then employs it more obliquely, and finally applies the
medium and smallest punches almost at right angles to the
stone. Many think that right-angle strokes, or strokes nearly
at right angles, tend seriously to ‘stun’ or ‘bruise’ the stone.
Provided the strokes are not hard this is not in fact the result2
(see below, p. 236). A certain amount of breaking of the
crystalline structure of the stone and of ‘stunning’ inevitably
occurs, but if the strokes are light, but steady and continuous,
the depth of ‘stunning’ is so slight that it is all worn away by
the subsequent abrading processes and the surface left
entirely undamaged.
The chronology of the punch is interesting. It was the
earliest tool to be used after the prehistoric period and coin-
cides with the beginnings of sculpture in hard stone. From
650 B.c. it is in use, and it remains as the principal metal
tool for nearly two hundred years. After 450 it falls out of
fashion and gives way to the flat chisel, which is then used
on a more extensive scale and at an earlier stage in the con-
struction of a statue than was the case in archaic times. How
much the pedimental sculptures of the Parthenon owe to the
flat chisel it is difficult to say, since there are so few un-
smoothed or unweathered surfaces to examine. But it is
doubtful if the flat chisel was there used to any extent. The
change probably came later and the popularity of the flat
chisel was probably due to the increased popularity of relief
work in the last quarter of that century. The punch was
1 Bliimel, pi. 5. The bulk of the marks indicate direct right-angle strokes.
2 I have experimented on Pentelic marble to establish the truth of this
statement.
inspection will show when the punch was used almost at
right angles and when it was used more obliquely. The
unfinished torso in the National Museum at Athens1 shows
the marks made by both modes of striking.
It might be considered as axiomatic that the sculptor uses
the heavy punch rather in the manner of the trimming-
hammer with force and at right angles in the earlier stages,
then employs it more obliquely, and finally applies the
medium and smallest punches almost at right angles to the
stone. Many think that right-angle strokes, or strokes nearly
at right angles, tend seriously to ‘stun’ or ‘bruise’ the stone.
Provided the strokes are not hard this is not in fact the result2
(see below, p. 236). A certain amount of breaking of the
crystalline structure of the stone and of ‘stunning’ inevitably
occurs, but if the strokes are light, but steady and continuous,
the depth of ‘stunning’ is so slight that it is all worn away by
the subsequent abrading processes and the surface left
entirely undamaged.
The chronology of the punch is interesting. It was the
earliest tool to be used after the prehistoric period and coin-
cides with the beginnings of sculpture in hard stone. From
650 B.c. it is in use, and it remains as the principal metal
tool for nearly two hundred years. After 450 it falls out of
fashion and gives way to the flat chisel, which is then used
on a more extensive scale and at an earlier stage in the con-
struction of a statue than was the case in archaic times. How
much the pedimental sculptures of the Parthenon owe to the
flat chisel it is difficult to say, since there are so few un-
smoothed or unweathered surfaces to examine. But it is
doubtful if the flat chisel was there used to any extent. The
change probably came later and the popularity of the flat
chisel was probably due to the increased popularity of relief
work in the last quarter of that century. The punch was
1 Bliimel, pi. 5. The bulk of the marks indicate direct right-angle strokes.
2 I have experimented on Pentelic marble to establish the truth of this
statement.