Studio: international art (12.1898)

VV/r Art of Wood-Carving

at this time almost universally employed for furni-
ture, and so the delicacy and fineness of the carving
suggest this material alone, and would be impos-
sible of application to oak as to any of the softer
kinds of wood.

And now I will travel back once more through
the centuries for an example of what I must regard
as well-nigh the perfection of design in carved fur-
niture. Among the justly-esteemed glories of Italy
are the elaborately-carved and gilt cassoni which,
originally designed as marriage-coffers, found a
place in everv well-to-do Italian household. Through
them alone one might fitly trace the whole history
of that century or two of artistic fervour which we
call the Italian Renaissance. They portray its
faults as well as its glories. Those of later date,
overladen as they are with a profusion of Rococo
carving, wrought with an admirable degree of tech-
nical skill, but with all evidences of the touch of the
craftsman's tool, which could alone vivify them, hid-
den and forgotten under their heavy load of gilded
gesso, though sought after eagerly by collectors, are
but vicious and misleading from an educational point
of view. But among the earlier examples are many
of a very different character. I have in my mind
as I write a certain cassone at South Kensington
(Figs. 5 and 6), which I have forlong regarded as one of
those rare instances of artistic completeness which
in their simple perfection produce the same sensuous
effect of pure satisfaction as does the strain of some
melody beloved in childhood, or one of those half-

PIG. 3 —CHAIR-BACK ENGLISH, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

(South Kensington Museum]

FIG. 4.—CHAIR-BACK ENGLISH, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
{By permission of the
Hon. IV. F. B. Massey-Mainwaring, M.P.)

score or so of lyrics which the world has agreed to
never let die. Its form is of the simplest—a mere
rectangular box of oblong proportions, the severity
relieved constructionally merely by a row of turned
spindle-work along its lower edge, and by the grace-
ful shaping of the angles which form, as it were, the
legs on which it stands. But the whole of the flat
surface of the front is enriched by the cunning of
the carver until it fairly palpitates with beauty. I
can think of no better phrase to express the effect
which this dead and forgotten Italian craftsman has
produced by aid of the simplest means at his com-
mand. It would, indeed, be almost a misnomer to
call the work carving at all, so absolutely archaic is
the technical treatment, were it not that the prin-
ciples which underlie it are essentially those which
should govern the wood-carver, whose task it is to
apply his art to furniture. Let us take these prin-
ciples seriatim. Firstly to be observed is the abso-
lute flatness of the entire work, a flatness which
does not depend entirely upon the obviousness of
the technical method by which the design is in-
cised rather than carved, in the true sense of the
word, but is emphasised by the actual lines of the
design itself. Even if a slight degree of modelling
had been employed, the effect as a whole would
still have been flat and reposeful. Secondly, note
may be taken of the happy disposition of the lines
of the design in relation to the space it occupies.
To use a phrase of studio slang, it is "well covered."
Again, the requisite amount of mystery is attained

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