DOI Heft:
No. 57 (December 1897)
DOI Artikel:Frampton, George: The art of wood-carving, [2]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18390#0198
The Art of Wood-Carving
FIG. 2. —COURT CUPBOARD ENGLISH, FIFTEENTH CENTURY
[South Kensington Museum)
piece of old work from the copying of which,
or even a portion of which, nothing but disap-
pointment can result, but which, carefully and
judiciously studied, cannot but be most helpful to
the student from the point of view of design as well
as of technique. It is over-laboured, as I have
said; it is lacking in reticence, but yet how different
is it from that collection of seventeenth-century
chairs which, when I last visited South Kensington,
were standing near it, and which, magnificent dis-
plays as they are of technical adeptness on the
wood-carver's part, are yet so absolutely vicious
when their ultimate aim and object are taken into
consideration. The carver here seems to have run
riot without a thought of the use for which the chair
is designed. The backs are masses of highly-raised
and deeply-sunken carving completely obscuring and
hiding the structural lines, and rendering the chair
as uncomfortable to sit upon as it is gorgeous to
behold. Sharp points protrude as though in sheer
wantonness from the centre; disturbing spikes pro-
ject from the upper angles as though with the special
158
intention of tearing the dainty habiliments of those
who may occupy the chair, or catching the sleeve
of the servant handing the dish from behind. It is
not until we approach our own century, and,
curiously enough, at a period when the minor arts,
in England at least, had sunk to their lowest point,
that we find a revertal to a more seemly principle
in regard to the carving of chair backs. Whatever
one may think of the general design of Chippen-
dale and his contemporaries, there is no doubt that
these famous cabinet-makers thoroughly appreciated
the proper limits within which carving as applied to
furniture should be confined (Figs. 3 and 4). Lowness
of relief, adaptation to the structural lines, the employ-
ment of a maximum of plain surface with a minimum
of carving, are all strongly-marked characteristics of
the work of this period. There is nothing to catch
or destroy the dress; there is nothing to produce
agonising sensations in the most sensitive portion of
the spinal column which the chair back is designed
to support. The genius of the material itself is
not forgotten. Close-grained, hard mahogany was
FIG. 2. —COURT CUPBOARD ENGLISH, FIFTEENTH CENTURY
[South Kensington Museum)
piece of old work from the copying of which,
or even a portion of which, nothing but disap-
pointment can result, but which, carefully and
judiciously studied, cannot but be most helpful to
the student from the point of view of design as well
as of technique. It is over-laboured, as I have
said; it is lacking in reticence, but yet how different
is it from that collection of seventeenth-century
chairs which, when I last visited South Kensington,
were standing near it, and which, magnificent dis-
plays as they are of technical adeptness on the
wood-carver's part, are yet so absolutely vicious
when their ultimate aim and object are taken into
consideration. The carver here seems to have run
riot without a thought of the use for which the chair
is designed. The backs are masses of highly-raised
and deeply-sunken carving completely obscuring and
hiding the structural lines, and rendering the chair
as uncomfortable to sit upon as it is gorgeous to
behold. Sharp points protrude as though in sheer
wantonness from the centre; disturbing spikes pro-
ject from the upper angles as though with the special
158
intention of tearing the dainty habiliments of those
who may occupy the chair, or catching the sleeve
of the servant handing the dish from behind. It is
not until we approach our own century, and,
curiously enough, at a period when the minor arts,
in England at least, had sunk to their lowest point,
that we find a revertal to a more seemly principle
in regard to the carving of chair backs. Whatever
one may think of the general design of Chippen-
dale and his contemporaries, there is no doubt that
these famous cabinet-makers thoroughly appreciated
the proper limits within which carving as applied to
furniture should be confined (Figs. 3 and 4). Lowness
of relief, adaptation to the structural lines, the employ-
ment of a maximum of plain surface with a minimum
of carving, are all strongly-marked characteristics of
the work of this period. There is nothing to catch
or destroy the dress; there is nothing to produce
agonising sensations in the most sensitive portion of
the spinal column which the chair back is designed
to support. The genius of the material itself is
not forgotten. Close-grained, hard mahogany was