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

The Head Of St Anne, Limewood
Hermitage St. Petersburg (c.1500)
by Tilman Riemenschneider.

Wood Carving and Sculpture

Contents

• Introduction
• History
• Modern Wood Carving
• Types of Wood
• The Carving Process

St Wolfgang Altarpiece (1471-81)
Carved in lindenwood by Michael Pacher.

HISTORY OF SCULPTURE
For a guide to the origins and
development of 3-D art, including
major achitectural movements,
see: Sculpture History.

Introduction

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. The art of wood sculpture flourished in medieval Europe (up to this point most surviving sculptures are in stone or ivory) and Romanesque works are especially expressive.

History

Wood carving reached its apogee during the era of German Gothic Art in the late-15th and early-16th century, when a number of outstanding examples of altarpiece art, and other religious works were created. Wood sculptors from this era included the German Late Gothic master 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. (See: German Renaissance Art, 1430-1580.) Other famous German wood carvers include Veit Stoss (1445-1533), noted for The Annunciation (1518), Church of St Lorenz in Nuremberg; Michael Pacher (1435-98), known for The St Wolfgang Altarpiece (1471-81), and Gregor Erhart (c.1470-1540), famous for his St. Mary Magdalene (c.1510, Louvre).

The Annunciation (1518) by
Veit Stoss, St Lorenz, Nuremberg.

WORLD'S BEST SCULPTORS
For a list of the top 100 3-D artists
(500 BCE - 2009), please see:
Greatest Sculptors.

FORMS OF SCULPTING
For different types of 3-D
carving/casting, see:
Stone Sculpture
Granite, limestone, sandstone
and other rock-types.
Marble Sculpture
Pentelic, Carrara, Parian marbles.
Bronze Sculpture
Lost-wax (cire perdue) casting
method and others.
Ivory Carving
Small-scale sculptures made
from animal tusks and teeth.

Modern Wood Carving

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 the Romanian Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957), whose first work was a violin, Henry Moore (1898-1986), whose masterpiece was Reclining Figure (1936), Ossip Zadkine (1890-1967), Barbara Hepworth (1903-75), Ernst Barlach (1870-1938), and Louise Nevelson (1899-1988) - noted for her 1930s sculptures and assemblages of 'found' wood.

Note About Sculpture Appreciation
To evaluate the beauty of wood-carving, see: How to Appreciate Sculpture. For later works, please see: How to Appreciate Modern Sculpture.

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 more about wood-carving, see: Art Encyclopedia.