beings with the face alone carved, animal mummy cases,
sometimes boxes, with the figure of a lizard, perhaps, carved in full
relief standing on the lid. Sometimes the animal, a
Mummy cases.
cat, sitting on its haunches, for example, or a jackal,
crouching on all fours, would be carved in the round and its
hollowed body used as the case itself.
Of furniture, folding seats like the modern campstool, and chairs with legs terminating in the heads of beasts or the feet of animals, still exist. Beds supported by lions' paws (XI. and XII. dynasties, from Gebeleîn, now in the Cairo Museum), headrests, 6 or 8 in. high, shaped like a crutch on afoot, very like Furniture. those used by the native of New Guinea to-day, are carved with scenes, &c., in outline. In the British Museum may be seen a tiny little coffer, 4 in. by 212 in., with very delicate figures carved in low relief. This little box stands on cabriole legs 58 of an inch long with claw feet, quite Louis Quinze in character. There are incense ladles, the handle representing a bouquet of lotus flowers, the bowl formed like the leaf of an aquatic plant with serrated edges (from Gurnah, XVIII. dynasty); mirror handles, representing a little pillar, or a lotus stalk, sometimes surmounted by a head of Hathor (the Egyptian Venus) or of Bêsu (god of the toilet); pin-cushions, in the shape of a small round tortoise with holes in the back for toilet pins, which were also of wood with dog-head ends (XI. dynasty, Cairo Museum); and perfume boxes such as a fish, the two halves forming the bottom and top—the perfume or pomatum was removed by little wooden spoons, one shaped in the form of a cartouche emerging from a full-blown lotus, another shaped like the neck of a goose, a third consisting of a dog running with a fish in its mouth, the fish forming the bowl. The list might be prolonged, but enough has been said to show to what a pitch of refinement the art of wood-carving had reached thousands of years before the birth of Christ.
Of the work of Assyria, Greece and Rome, little is actually known except from history or inference. It may be safely assumed that the craft kept pace with the varying taste and refinement of all the older civilizations. Important pieces of wood sculpture which once existed in Greece and other ancient Assyria, Greece and Rome. countries are only known to us from the descriptions of Pausanias and other classic writers. Many examples of the wooden images of the gods (ξόανα) were preserved down to late historic times. The Palladium, or sacred figure of Pallas, which was guarded by the Vestal Virgins in Rome and was fabled to have been brought by Aeneas from the burning Troy, was one of these wooden ξόανα.
First Eleven Centuries after Christ.—Wood-carving examples of this period are extremely rare. The carved panels of the main doors of St Sabina on the Aventine Hill, Rome, are very interesting specimens of early Christian relief sculpture in wood, dating, as the dresses show, from the 5th century. The doors are made up of a large number of small square panels, each minutely carved with a scene from the Old or New Testament. The whole feeling of these reliefs is thoroughly classic, though of course in a very debased form. A very fine fragment of Byzantine art (11th–12th centuries) is preserved in a monastery at Alount Athos in Macedonia. It consists of two panels (one above the other) of relief sculpture, surmounted by a semicircular arch of conventional foliage springing from columns ornamented with animals in foliage of spiral form. The capitals and bases are square, each face being carved with a figure. It is a wonderfully fine piece of work, conceived in the best decorative spirit.
In Scandinavian countries we find some very early work of excellent design. In the Christiania Museum there are some fine chairs of the 9th or 10th centuries carved with that particular flat and broad treatment of scroll and strapwork so eminently suited to soft wood. In the Copenhagen Scandinavian work. Museum there are panels from Iceland in the same style. The celebrated wooden doorways of Aal (A.D. 1200) (Plate II. fig. 3), Sauland, Flaa, Solöer and other Norwegian churches (Christiania Museum) are only an elaboration of the same treatment of dragons and intricate scroll work, a style which we still see carried on in the door-posts of the 15th century in the Nordiska Museum, Stockholm, and in the Icelandic work of quite modern times. In these early days the leaf was not much developed in design. The carver depended almost entirely on the stalk, a style of work which has its counterpart in Burmese work of the 17th century.
Gothic Period (12th–15th Centuries).—It was towards the end of this epoch that wood-carving reached its culminating point. The choir stalls, rood-screens, roofs, retables, of England, France and the Teutonic countries of Europe, have in execution, balance and proportion, never at any time been approached. In small designs, in detail, in minuteness, in mechanical accuracy, the carver of this time has had his rivals, but for greatness of architectural conception, for a just appreciation of decorative treatment, the designer of the 15th century stands alone.
It should always be borne in mind that colour was the keynote of this scheme. The custom was practically universal, and enough traces remain to show how splendid was the effect of these old Gothic churches and cathedrals in their perfection. The priests in their gorgeous vestments, the lights, the crucifix, the banners and incense, the frescoed or diapered walls, and that crowning glory of Gothic art, the stained glass, were all in harmony with these beautiful schemes of coloured carved work. Red, blue, green, white and gilding were the tints as a rule used. Not only were the screens painted in colours, but the parts painted white were often further decorated with delicate lines and sprigs of foliage in conventional pattern. The plain surfaces of the panels were also adorned with saints, often on a background of delicate gesso diaper, coloured or gilded (Southwold). Nothing could exceed the beauty of the triptychs or retables of Germany, Flanders (Plate I. fig. 1) or France; carved with scenes from the New Testament in high relief arranged under a delicate lacework of canopies and clustered pinnacles glistening with gold and brilliant colours. In Germany the effect was further enhanced by emphasizing parts of the gilding by means of a transparent varnish tinted with red or green, thus giving a special tone to the metallic lustre.
The style of design used during this great period owes much of its interest to the now obsolete custom of employing direct the craftsman and his men, instead of the present-day habit of giving the work to a contractor. It is easy to trace how those bands of carvers travelled about from church to church. In one district the designer would employ a particular form and arrangement of vine leaf, while in another adjoining quite a different style repeatedly appears. Judging by results, this system produced the best class of work both in design and execution. The general scheme was of course planned by one master mind, but the carrying out of each section, each part, each detail, was left to the individual workman. Hence that variety of treatment, that endless diversity, which gives a charm and interest to Gothic art, unknown in more symmetrical epochs. The Gothic craftsman appreciated the cardinal fact that in design beautiful detail does not necessarily insure a beautiful composition, and subordinated the individual part to the general effect. He also often carved in situ, a practice seldom if ever followed in the present day. Here and there one comes across the work of long years ago still unfinished. A half-completed bench-end, a fragment of screen left plain, clearly show that sometimes at least the church was the workshop.
Gothic and Renaissance: a Comparison.—Gothic design roughly divides itself into two classes: (1) the geometrical, i.e. tracery and diaper patterns, and (2) the foliage designs, where the mechanical scroll of the Renaissance is as a rule absent. The lines of foliage treatment, so common in the bands of the 15th-century rood-screens and the panel work especially of Germany, serve to illustrate the widely different motives of the craftsmen of these two great epochs. Again, while the Renaissance designer as a rule made the two sides of the panel alike, the Gothic carver seldom repeated a single detail. While his main lines and grouping corresponded, his detail differed. Of numberless examples a 15th-century chest (Plate III. fig. 6) in the Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin, may be referred to. The arrangements of foliage, &c., on top, back and front, are typical of Gothic at its best.
End of the 12th century–1300.—As this section treats of wood-carving in Europe generally, and not of any one country alone, the dates just named must be of necessity only approximate. The 13th century was marked not only by great skill both in design and treatment, but also much devotional feeling. The craftsman seems to have not merely carved, but to have carved to the glory of God. At no time was work more delicately conceived or more beautifully cut. This early Gothic style certainly lent itself to fine finish, and in this respect was more suited to stone treatment than to wood. But the loving care bestowed on each detail seems to point to a religious devotion which is sometimes absent from later work. Very good examples of capitals (now, alas, divided down the centre) are to be seen in Peterborough cathedral. Scrolls and foliage spring from groups of columns of four. Some Italian columns of the same date (Victoria and Albert Museum) should be compared, much to the advantage of the former. Exeter cathedral boasts misereres unsurpassed for skilful workmanship: mermaids, dragons, elephants, masks, knights and other subjects introduced into foliage, form the designs. Salisbury cathedral is noted for its stall elbows, and the reredos in the south transept of Addisham, Kent, is another fine example testifying to the great skill of the 13th-century wood-carvers. A very interesting set of stalls, the early history of which is unknown, was placed in Barming church, Kent, about the year 1868. The book rest ends are carved with two scrolls and an animal standing between, and the ends of the stalls with figure sculpture: Christ rescuing souls from Hell, Samson slaying the lion, St George and the dragon, &c. The work of these stalls is that of an artist who knew what effect he wanted to produce and got it. There is in the Berlin Museum a very fine example of a 13th-century prayer desk from Johanniskirche in Herford. The front is carved in three panels under arches, two with vine leaves and grapes and the other with an oak tree conventionally treated. Along the arches is carved in Latin “this three-divisioned desk has John with the help of Thomas carved. Who will not praise this work may he then be removed,” a somewhat drastic method of obtaining favourable criticism.
1300–1380.—During this period foliage forms, though still conventional, more closely followed nature. The canopy work of the choir of Winchester contains exquisite carvings of oak and other leaves. The choir stalls of Ely and Chichester and the tomb of Edward III. in Westminster Abbey are all fine examples of this period. Exeter boasts a throne—that of Bishop Stapledon (A.D. 1308–1326) standing 57 ft. high—which remains unequalled for perfection of proportion and delicacy of detail (Plate IV. fig. 8). In France the stalls
