| Specimens of Gothic Wood Carving |
Examples of decorative carving in wood dating prior to the Middle Ages are extremely rare. Some sculptured figures of saints, and other fragments of a more solid sort, have survived, but the more delicate ornamental work has disappeared. Indeed most of the ornamental wood-carvings which have come down to us even from the Middle Ages belong almost exclusively to the end of that period, when, especially in Germany, the art attained unrivalled productiveness and excellence.
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During the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the skill in technical workmanship was unsurpassed. By this time, too, the carvers had learned to adapt their designs most perfectly to the nature of their material; to avoid attempting to cut large curves, braces and other structural members out of wood,—which besides being wasteful of the material, since enormous balks were required when large curves were cut out of the solid wood, were constructionally weak,—and to design their larger pieces with straight lines for the main frame-work, using curves only on a smaller scale and in positions where they were not subjected to much strain.
In design, the work of this period evinces great vigor and originality. The best workmen did not repeat predetermined patterns, but allowed the motives to grow under their hands, thus endowing even the smallest pieces with an individuality which makes the decorative effect as spirited and varied as it is graceful. The perfection of architectonic designs in the wood-carving of this time, was probably due rather to emulation of the lace-like and elaborate carving in stone which was being executed contemporaneously, than the imitation of it.
The modern notion that carved wood should be left unpainted was quite foreign to Gothic designers. They preferred even a simple coating of white or red to the natural tone of the material, and commonly the chief members of all the mouldings were adorned with delicately painted patterns. Our "restorers" have in most cases, however, scraped off all that remained of this brilliant decoration.
The excellent preservation of specimens of even the most fragile wood-carvings of this century is due doubtless to the extreme care with which the workmen selected and prepared their material. Oak was almost invariably employed; and it is evident that not only was it critically selected but that it was subjected to an elaborate process of preparation. It was probably left for long in damp places, sometimes even soaked in water, after which it was thoroughly dried in the open air and thereafter occasionally smoked, for the purpose of hardening the surface.
S. F. N.
