Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/764

 WOOD-CARVING

700

WOOD-CARVING

Derby (St. Peter's church), Chevington, and Brance- peth.

In the same way carpenter and carver shared in the work of making the choir-stalls and altars, which in the course of time were richly ornamented. In the choir-stalls the chief adornment was at the ends, on the supports under the seats or misericords and on the arms of the seats; the ends were decorated with figures of saints and with symbolical ani- mals carved partly in relief and partly in the round. The imagina- tion of the carver had its freest field in the misericords, where in addition to fruits and flowers, the wildest designs of the artist's inventive fancy may be found, the secular and spiritual, serious and gav, satirical and symbolical. The carv- ing on the arms of the stalls was also often more ingenious than artistic. The backs of the stalls were fre- quently richly deco- rated not only with architectural o r n a - ments, as crockets, finials, and gabled hood-mouldings on the baldachino, but also with single figures and connected scenes. As

Candelabrum of Carved "Wood Bologna, XVIII Century

examples may bo mentioned the choir-stalls in the cathedral at Amiens (1508-1522). Both of these are exceeded in sumptuousness by the carving on a number of stalls in Spain, as those in the cathedral of Seville by Danchard and Nufro Sanchez (d. 14S0). It is impossible here to go into the historical details of the development either of the stalls or of the altars made of wood. Carving was an important feature of these latter, especially in Germany and Flanders. The development of these altars is an important chapter in the history of sculpture in wood. They consisted essentially of a shrine, an open or closed one, ornamented with several figures or numerous groups of small ones. The most noted carved altars were the work of artists who were among the most distinguished sculptors of the later Middle Ages. Among these men were Michael Pacher, who made the celebrated altar at St. Wolfgang in Austria, the high altar at Blaubcuren in Swabia by Jorg Syrlin the younger, the altar of the Sacred Blood at Rothenburg by Till Riemenschneider, the altar of the Virgin by Veit Stoss at Cracow, the high altar in Schleswig by Hans Briiggemann.

Down to about 1350 Gothic wood-carving borrowed its ornamentation from stone carving. Later the more frequent use of wood and increased technical skill led to the abandonment of the rigid laws of stone carving, and to the creation of an indepen<ient style which attained freer and more brilliant results by the greater delicacy, finer membering, interlacing of lines, and pierced work. These advantages were used with such skill by the carvers that finally they were con- spicuously used in stone-carving also. The creased folds, sharp corners, and edges characteristic of the late Gothic style are probably to be traced back to the cutting knife used in wood-carving. This develop- ment of late Gothic wood-carving w.as largely brought about by the fact that the figun-s and altars were dlways painted in a number of colours. The carved

work was first covered with a coating of chalk, which was then painted with gay colours and richly gilded, and patterns or inscriptions were impressed upon the seams of the robes and nimbi. This naturally made it unnecessary for the carver to carry out hia work into the finest details, as it was to be covered by polychromatic painting. Consequently most of the great carved work of the late Middle Ages is not intended to produce its effect by the details, but by the impression made by the whole. Regarded in this way many wooden altars, by the richness of the orna- mental carving, the scenes presented by the figures, and the brilUant decoration of paint and gold, excite a feeling of joy and produce a mystical effect that cannot be produced by a stone altar, \^■ooden altars are frequently enriched by painted wings. It is, therefore, easy to understand why the carved altars of Flanders, in particular, were largely exported, even as far as Norway and Portugal.

Medieval wood-carving, naturally, was not limited to the production of the pieces of church furniture mentioned above. Besides the choir-stalls other furnishings similarly ornamented were the celebrant's seat (deacon's seat), episcopal throne, doors, pulpits, and reading-desks. In addition there was the vast number of statues of the Madonna and the saints, as well as crucifixes, with which the churches were filled at the close of the Middle Ages, and which, especially in the lands afTected by the Reformation, were burned by the wagon-load at the beginning of the schism. Notwithstanding this there is a larger amount of carved work formerly belonging to churches in Germany and Belgium than in any other country, although the art of wood-carving created numerous and worthy productions in France, Italy, Spain, and especially in Scandinavia and England. As an instance of English work should be mentioned the beautiful sepulchral figure of Archbishop Peckham at Canterbury; of French work, the doors of the cathe- dral at Aix (i.504). The style of wood-carving in the late Middle Ages was strongly influenced by the art of painting, since several important German sculptors in wood were also painters, or at least owned studios, such as Michael Pacher, Friedrich Herlin, and Hans Multscher, hence, though the undercutting of the drapery was deep and its design bold, the effect was mean and trivial. The pictorial element was en- couraged by the ease with which lime and poplar, which were the woods used in Southern Germany, could be worked; in Northern Germany the preference was for oak.

This brilUant period of wood-carving came to an end in Germany and Switzerland about 1530 on account of the religious turmoil. But there were scattered works of high excellence produced in these countries by the art of the Renaissance, as, for instance, the choir-stalls in the cathedral at Berne (1.522), which have the naive gi-ace of the early Renaissance, and the stalls in the former monastic church at Wettingen (U;03) in Germany, which show the grace and skill of the late Renaissance, the superb stalls in the chapter-chamber of the cathedral at Mainz, the carving on the lower part of which is alive with grotesque figures. Freciucnt opportunity for artistic carved work was also gi\-cn by the organ cases, the galleries, the pews, and especially the panels covering the walls of chapter-rooms, and similar ecclesiastical halls. One of the richest panellings in Germany is that of the chapter-room of the cathedral at Miinster in \Vesti)halia (1544-1552). Excellent carvings of this period in the Netherlands are the choir-stalls of the Great Church at Dordrecht which picture the entry of Charles V into the city. A fine example of French wood-car\lng is that of the choir- stalls of Saint-D(-nis. During this period the greatest triumphs of wood-carving were produced in Italy, the birth-place of the Renaissance. Here this art profited