Wood Carving
Sculpture in Wood, History, Types, Tilman Riemenschneider, Henry Moore.
Visual Arts

Wood Carving and Sculpture

Wood sculpture, the creation of small-scale figures from hard or soft woods, is an art-form common to all cultures and was the principal type of 3-D tribal art practiced in Africa, Oceania, and North America.

One of the most impressive pieces of wood sulpture produced during the late Stone Age is The Thinker From Cernavoda, an oak figure in contemplative mood, discovered near the Danube in Romania.

The main alternatives to wood sculpture are stone and bronze.

History

Wood carving reached its apogee during the Middle Ages in Europe, when a number of outstanding altarpieces and other religious works were created. Wood sculptors from this era included the German Northern Renaissance artist Tilman Riemenschneider (1460-1531), who produced a series of stunning limewood sculptures. His works were mainly religious, and included altarpieces, reliefs, busts, and life-size statues characterized by bold Gothic symbolism and realistic carving. Other famous German wood carvers included Veit Stoss (1445-1533) noted for The Annunciation (1518), Church of St Lorenz in Nuremberg; Michael Pacher (1462-98), known for The St Wolfgang Altarpiece (1471-81). Sculpting in wood, usually oak, also underwent something of a revival in England during the 16th and 17th century. Famous modern artists who have sculpted in wood include Henry Moore (1898-1986), whose masterpiece was Reclining Figure (1936), Barbara Hepworth (1903-75), Ossip Zadkine, Ernst Barlach, and Louise Nevelson - noted for her 1930s sculptures of 'found' wood.

Types of Wood

Methods and styles of wood carving include chip carving, relief carving, and Scandinavian flat-plane. Both softwoods and hardwoods are used, principally oak, mahogany, walnut, elm, limewood, chestnut, ebony, boxwood, cedar, teak and pine. Because of its fibrous strength, wood can be carved more thinly and precisely than stone or animal bone. For large compositions, two or more pieces of wood may be carved then joined. Hardwoods are more difficult to sculpt but possess greater lustre and endurance, while softwoods are easier to shape, but less durable. No wood is as durable, weatherproof or insect-immune as stone, and thus is used mainly for indoor works. Lastly, whatever wood is used, it remains an anisotropic material (its properties differ when measured in different directions), and is strongest in the direction of the grain. Thus sculptors carve their most delicate lines with the grain rather than against it.

The Carving Process

Wood carving tools include the following: a special carving knife used to cut and pare the wood; a gouge with a curved cutting edge used for making hollows and curves; a specialist gouge called a veiner, with a U-shaped edge; a straight-edge chisel used for lines; as well as various mallets and hammers.

The sculptor starts by choosing a block of wood appropriate to the shape and scale of his intended design. Employing gouges of various sizes, he then reduces the wood to an approximate shape, which he refines with a variety of tools like veiners and v-tools. When the detailed work is complete, the sculptor smoothes the surfaces with implements like rasps and rifflers, and with different grains of sandpaper. Lastly, to enhance and preserve the sculpture, he stains it walnut or linseed oil, and then coats it in varnish, resin or wax.

• For details of wood-carving in Ireland, see: Guide to Irish Art

• How to Update This Mini Review of Wood Carving and Sculpture

Irish Art News Stories - Guide to Irish Art Exhibitions and Shows
© visual-arts-cork.com 2008 All rights reserved.