CARVING IN THE ROUND.

Carving in the round is cutting an object which is finished on every side, as a bust or statue. It is in fact “statuary.” It seems to be very difficult work to a beginner, but the pupil who has mastered the rudiments which are laid down in this book, and who can measure and cut a low relief of an inch, or a high relief pattern of two or three inches, will find no trouble whatever in carving something small in the round, and in progressing from this to something larger. The steps in wood-carving from hammering an indented pattern to carving a statue are perfectly defined, and very easy if they are thoroughly mastered one at a time.

Carving in the round will be least difficult to the one who can model his work in clay or modelling-wax. This is especially easy if he alternates carving with designing and modelling; it is, in fact, so great an aid to carving, that there should be little of the latter without it. He who has modelled anything in clay or wax has, in a way, carved it in a soft material, while true carving is only modelling with gouges and chisels.

There is no difficulty for one who has mastered the first six lessons of this book, in carving half a duck or fish in relief. If he could carve the other side and join them he would have the animal complete. From blocking out simple forms, such as ducks, fish, hares, or game, in high relief, the carver soon learns how to “rough” almost anything. Having made a bust in clay, he knows where a bit is to be removed or cut away here or there. He studies it as he proceeds, alternately in profile or full-face, and continually measures with callipers and compasses to see that he is preserving all the proportions. The practice which he has had in delicately carving, grooving, sweeping, and modelling leaves, in cutting the hair of game, imitating basket-work, etc., will all now come into play. As regards fitting certain tools to form the eye-balls, eye-lids, etc., if the pupil does not as yet know the measure and capacity of his tools, he has worked to little purpose. If he should be in doubt from time to time, let him just carve an eye, or a lip, or mouth, on a piece of waste wood, and he will have no difficulty in repeating it; and he who grudges the time for such practice will never make an artist, Fig. 53.

The great difficulty in carving in deep relief and in the round, is to get the general sweep and contour and proportions of the whole, and this is difficult for a pupil who does not design, and shade, and model, while it is a mere trifle to one who does. The cutting and blocking out, which seems to be the great difficulty, is a merely mechanical process, performed with compasses, carving tools, and rasps, and sometimes with a steel bow-saw, here and there. And it presents no difficulties to any intelligent person who has carefully executed all that is described in the previous lessons, especially to one who has carved animals and simple figures, or faces, in high relief.

It is true that in shops where much large and coarse work is executed, as, for instance, great pieces for ceilings, figures for faÇades, and the like, the sculptor, trained from the beginning to the sweep-cut and to bold chipping, makes little account of any difficulty, and proceeds to carve with great confidence. Now what the student must endeavour to attain is some of the confidence of the mere workman with the culture and knowledge of the artist. And he should, whenever an opportunity presents itself, try to see practical carvers of all kinds at work, for in this way he will learn much which no books give.

It is to be recommended that the first attempts at carving in the round be made in soft pine wood, as it is of course most easily modelled. No one should be discouraged because a first or second effort has turned out a failure.

I have observed that many writers on the art treat carving in high relief, or in the round, as if the first effect in it must necessarily be a human head or figure, that is to say, the most difficult of all objects. But he who can cut out a wooden shoe, or a rabbit, or a fish, or the simplest object, on a large scale, on all its sides, will, if he repeats this till he can do it easily, have mastered the greatest difficulty which alarms beginners, that of blocking out from all sides.

In the head by Civitale, full half-round, which may easily be made full round, the carver may begin by modelling the whole. If this is not convenient, let him mark out with the compasses the different dimensions, and carefully bring the whole into form by first rounding all into a rude shape, and then very gradually cut away the hollows. No detailed descriptions of exactly what tools to choose for certain places, or how to work, would be of any real use to the pupil who has carefully executed the previous lessons, as he will not have a single cut which he has not made before, and in this instance a little voluntary ingenuity and reflection will do more good than any instruction.