DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42779#0312
FOR WORKS IN BRONZE 229
a furrow or indent a line, while the butt-end would be to
beat in a surface and make a hollow or to flatten out a
protruding edge. The assistant who, on the Foundry vase,
is beating a statue seems to be flattening with the butt-end
some area below the neck or shoulder. He is certainly not
striking the arm or hand. But his action is difficult to
explain, for his grip of the hammer is not that of a man who
is using it to strike with. It has been suggested to me by the
sculptor Mr. Pilkington Jackson of Edinburgh that this
bronzeworker is not using the head but the haft of the
hammer and that he is using it to break up the clay core by
driving it into the aperture of the neck. This explains why
he holds the hammer high up the haft and not in the normal
way.
The long slender hafts of the hammers show plainly
enough that the hammers were used lightly. Hard hitting
would soon break so slender a haft. The hafts of the hammers
on the Acropolis fragment are even more slender, and ob-
viously intended for only the very lightest tapping. For the
whole process of bronzeworking admits only of light work
with the hammer or rasp or gouge. Heavy blows would
soon crack cast bronze or bring out latent weaknesses and
flaws. Steady and continuous tapping would produce good
results. The artist who appears to be striking the horse in
the Acropolis fragment (Fig. 54) with a hammer is clearly
giving light taps, for he holds the instrument very close.
The artist of the Foundry vase, on the other hand, is hitting
harder and, in order to safeguard his hammer-haft, is holding
it near the head, or at least half-way. Two distinct and
intentionally different sizes of hammer are shown in the
Foundry vase, one about 2 feet long and the other about
18 inches. The workman standing behind the master at the
furnace holds the larger and the workman who is hammering
the headless statue the smaller. Two of the large and one of
the small hammers hang on the wall in this scene. In the
opposite scene is one of the small hammers only, hanging
a furrow or indent a line, while the butt-end would be to
beat in a surface and make a hollow or to flatten out a
protruding edge. The assistant who, on the Foundry vase,
is beating a statue seems to be flattening with the butt-end
some area below the neck or shoulder. He is certainly not
striking the arm or hand. But his action is difficult to
explain, for his grip of the hammer is not that of a man who
is using it to strike with. It has been suggested to me by the
sculptor Mr. Pilkington Jackson of Edinburgh that this
bronzeworker is not using the head but the haft of the
hammer and that he is using it to break up the clay core by
driving it into the aperture of the neck. This explains why
he holds the hammer high up the haft and not in the normal
way.
The long slender hafts of the hammers show plainly
enough that the hammers were used lightly. Hard hitting
would soon break so slender a haft. The hafts of the hammers
on the Acropolis fragment are even more slender, and ob-
viously intended for only the very lightest tapping. For the
whole process of bronzeworking admits only of light work
with the hammer or rasp or gouge. Heavy blows would
soon crack cast bronze or bring out latent weaknesses and
flaws. Steady and continuous tapping would produce good
results. The artist who appears to be striking the horse in
the Acropolis fragment (Fig. 54) with a hammer is clearly
giving light taps, for he holds the instrument very close.
The artist of the Foundry vase, on the other hand, is hitting
harder and, in order to safeguard his hammer-haft, is holding
it near the head, or at least half-way. Two distinct and
intentionally different sizes of hammer are shown in the
Foundry vase, one about 2 feet long and the other about
18 inches. The workman standing behind the master at the
furnace holds the larger and the workman who is hammering
the headless statue the smaller. Two of the large and one of
the small hammers hang on the wall in this scene. In the
opposite scene is one of the small hammers only, hanging