Studio: international art (12.1898)

The Art of Wood-Carving

of the most beautiful work, indeed, of the fifteenth some old-time pursuivant and, by a flowing line
and sixteenth centuries, is marred by this apparent here and a playful irregularity there, has marked
lack of appreciation of the value of plain surfaces, the difference between mere artifice and art.
and yet from these self-same objects there is much So much on the credit side of his ledger. Now,
to be learned. Take, for example, that well-known let us see where, if anywhere, he has held up the
and superlatively beautiful pulpit of French work danger signal to us. I think myself, as I have hinted
of the fourteenth century in South Kensington before, what this warns us against particularly is the
Museum (Fig. i). Taken by themselves, and apart hazard which lies in doing too much rather than too
from their context, the panels of this are well-nigh little. If this long-dead and forgotten Frenchman
perfect as examples of design applied to interior had been content to restrain his chisel; if, for
woodwork. In some of them the carver has gone instance, he had left his lower panels plain, and
straight to Nature for his inspiration, and while confined the glorification of his material to the
avoiding stiff or mechanical regularity, on the one upper portion of the pulpit, I think he would have
hand, has, on the other, made no attempt to pro- sounded a surer and a more convincing note to those
duce an effect of unsatisfactory realism. He has, to whom his work was to appeal. But this is a fault
in fact, conventionalised with that innate conviction confined to no age and to no country. One sees it
of the natural growth and disposition of the living displayed in an even more marked degree in a very
plant which we are sometimes wont to look upon charming and attractive Court cupboard (Fig. 2) which
as a peculiar property of the Japanese artists. In owes its being to English fingers of the fifteenth
other panels he has taken the heraldic forms set century, and which has found a resting-place in our
out for him in all their lifeless ceremonialism by day only a few yards from the pulpit I have just

referred to. There is a great deal to
be learned from this by the young
craftsman who is directing his atten-

__^^^^^^^p!^-?|7:^r-— tion to the carving of furniture. He

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^P^^^^^^^^^^^^^^k will notice the absence of projections

which are apt to catch in the clothes
^titlr and drapery of those who move about

5g§§§§ the room. He will note the skill

|||p with which the desired effects of light

and shade are produced with a mini-
mum of depth in the cutting, so

JPllf tnat undUiV sunk cavities may not

|m|p afford a harbourage for dust. He

Jppf will admire, doubtless, the admirable

Iff It fashion in which the ornamentation

|||p has been made subject to the con-

'%hzm struction ; how the strength of the

p^p supporting pillars of the lower por-

pffjf tion is emphasised rather than dis-

#1® S/; , '1 turbed by the lines of the carving,

%f^m%-'./ but I think he will also feel—there

ItpPPP', is no doubt that he should feel—a

PPP^^^ sense almost of irritation at what I

8^Plllllf^': may ( a" tne un'vc'rs'll'ly °f enrich-

fe^P^^^fe^ ment. 1 low much more telling would

:t||^^S^r be the panels of the cupboard por-

WjjjjM * C'' °r' tion of the upper part were the sup-

Wwfl porting stiles left plain ! How much

^^^^^^~~^^^^^^^^^^^S^^^^Z^'-- - ~''''<^&$ richer would the decoration of the

^^I^SSSB^^EaaMea^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ string mouldings appear if some of

■u'l<Jl)J3^88BBw8^i^^^^ the members afforded relief by being

fig. i.—carved wood pulpit French, fourteenth century undecorated ! Here, in short, we

{South Kensington Museum) have a most striking instance of a

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