To make (enriched) mouldings or modelled leafage it is necessary to have shapes of wood carved in intaglio with those same forms that you wish to render in relief. The worker takes stucco that is not actually hard nor really soft, but in a way tenacious, and puts it on the work in the quantity needed for the detail intended to be formed. He then places over it the said hollowed mould which is powdered with marble dust, striking it with a hammer so that the blows fall equally, and this leaves the stucco imprinted; he then proceeds to clean and finish it so that the work becomes true and even. But if he desire the work to have bolder relief in projection, in the spot where this is to come he fixes iron supports or nails or other armatures of a similar kind which hold the stucco suspended in the air, and by these means the stucco sets firmly, as one sees in the ancient edifices where the stucco and the iron supports are found still preserved to the present day.[[182]] Moreover, when the artificer wishes to produce a composition in bas-relief on a flat wall, he first inserts numerous nails in the wall, here projecting less, there more, according as the figures are to be arranged, and between these he crowds in little bits of brick or tufa, in order that the ends or heads of these may hold the coarse stucco of the first rough cast, which he afterwards goes on refining delicately and patiently till it consolidates. While it is hardening he works diligently, retouching it continually with moistened paint-brushes in such a manner as may bring it to perfection, just as if it were of wax or clay. By means of this same arrangement of nails and of ironwork made on purpose, larger and smaller according to need, vaults and partition walls and old buildings are decorated with stucco, as one sees all over Italy at the present day to be the habit of many masters who have given themselves to this practice. Nor is one to suspect work so done of being perishable; on the contrary it lasts for ever, and hardens so well as time goes on, that it becomes like marble.
CHAPTER VII. (XIV.)
How Figures in Wood are executed and of what sort of Wood is best for the purpose.
§ 73. Wood Carving.
He who wishes figures of wood to be executed in a perfect manner, must first make for them a model of wax or clay, as we have said. This sort of figure is much used in the Christian religion, seeing that numberless masters have produced many crucifixes and other objects. But in truth, one never gives that flesh-like appearance and softness to wood that can be given to metal and to marble and to the sculptured objects that we see in stucco, wax, or clay. The best however of all the woods used for sculpture is that of the lime, because it is equally porous on every side, and it more readily obeys the rasp and chisel. But when the artificer wishes to make a large figure, since he cannot make it all of one single piece, he must join other pieces to it and add to its height and enlarge it according to the form that he wishes to make. And to stick it together in such a way that it may hold he must not take cheese mucilage, because that would not hold, but parchment glue;[[183]] with this melted and the said pieces warmed at the fire let him join and press them together, not with iron nails but with pegs of the wood itself; which done, let him work it and carve it according to the form of his model. There are also most praiseworthy works in boxwood to be seen done by workmen in this trade, and very beautiful ornaments in walnut, which when they are of good black walnut almost appear to be of bronze. We have also seen carvings on fruit stones, such as those of the cherry and apricot executed by the hand of skilful Germans[[184]] with a patience and delicacy which are great indeed. And although foreigners do not achieve that perfect design which the Italians exhibit in their productions, they have nevertheless wrought, and still continue to work, in such a manner that they bring their art to a point of refinement that makes the world wonder: as can be seen in a work, or to speak more correctly, in a miracle of wood carving by the hand of the Frenchman, Maestro Janni, who living in the city of Florence which he had chosen for his country, adopted, for his designs, in which he always delighted, the Italian style. This, with the practice he had in working in wood, enabled him to make a figure in limewood of San Rocco as large as life. With exquisite carving he fashioned the soft and undercut draperies that clothe it, cut almost to the thinness of paper and with a beautiful flow in the order of the folds, so that one cannot see anything more marvellous. In like manner, he has carried out the head, beard, hands and feet of that Saint with such perfection that it has deserved, and always will deserve infinite praise from every man; and what is more, in order that the excellence of the artist may be seen in all its parts, the figure has been preserved to our days in the church of the Annunziata at Florence beneath the pulpit, free from any covering of colour or painting, in its own natural colour of wood and with only the finish and perfection that Maestro Janni gave it, beautiful beyond all other figures that can be seen carved in wood.[[185]] And this suffices for a brief notice of all the things relating to sculpture. Let us now pass on to painting.
Plate IX
STATUE OF S. ROCCO CARVED IN LIMEWOOD, by a French Artist ‘Maestro Janni,’ in the Church of the Annunziata, Florence
NOTES ON ‘INTRODUCTION’ TO SCULPTURE
THE NATURE OF SCULPTURE.
[§ 36, The Nature of Sculpture, ante, p. [143].]