16 Oct Technology and Authenticity
Technology and Authenticity
Since Palaeolithic times, man has been carving sculpture. Our distant ancestors would take a piece of wood or bone and from it create a form pleasing to them. It is very likely that the mind that had the idea to do so, was that of the same individual whose hand shaped it. Since then the directness from idea to execution seems to have fluctuated over the millennia.
The carvers of the statues of the Pharaohs were probably slaves but we know almost nothing of their methods. Perhaps master artists directed the work, but perhaps not. Maybe these slaves were themselves not only very skilled craftsmen but also talented artists.
We cannot be sure if the great Myron, Praxiteles and Scopas carved their own figures but we think they probably did. We also think that Phidias did much of his own work although some of his huge figures must have been too much even for a man of his superhuman renown to have done single handedly. We do know, however, that the sculptors of ancient Greece were so at home with their medium that their knowledge, skill and taste have never in history been equalled.
Although the very excellent Donatello of the renaissance produced wonderful, if rather formulaic sculptures, the art didn’t peak until Michelangelo. The former, like most of his peers, had a team working for him each with his own specialisation and the master would direct operations, finish off and put his name to it.
Michelangelo came along and insisted on doing all his own work, from roughing out to finishing. He insisted on the arduous path of solitude and autonomy. As a result he developed a highly individual style that totally revolutionised sculpture. (It is partly because of him that we have the term “Renaissance Man” to mean a man who excels in all aspects; a polymath.)
People copied Michelangelo’s style, took it further and going back to the easier and more cost-effective route of specialisation produced baroque and rococo sculptures by the thousands starting with Bernini going on to Canova and later a host of French neo-classicists.
In reaction to this formulaic almost mass-production of art, Impressionism was born. At this time Rodin with a Michelangelesque work ethic produced hundreds of highly individual clay figures. Although he didn’t cast the figures himself (it is unlikely that even the ancient Greek modellers did either) we can be sure that the modelling is all his own work. Other great artists of the time, such as Modigliani who carved stone also did all their own work.
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Today most full time professional sculptors do not carve their own work. Sculpture is arduous and labour-intensive so in order to make life easier and more profitable a sculptor will get other people to execute his pieces for him. In Carrara and Pietrasanta in Italy, which is the biggest marble producing area in the world and where until very recently, there were the highest concentration of artisan sculptors anywhere, labour is highly specialised.
With some variations the process is that one man will rough out; another man will point up which means carving away marble to about a pencil’s thickness up to accurate points arrived at with callipers or a “pointing device”; another man will carve drapery and another faces and hands. Normally, the sculptures would be produced from plaster casts of famous works. Popular ones for example, are Michelangelo’s Pieta and David, Canova’s three graces, the bust of Caracalla and the Aphrodite of Cnidos. Sometimes a new piece is commissioned for example of Father Pio and if there is no plaster “Father Pio” ready on the shelf, a specialist modeller will produce one in a classical style.
For the fine art sculptor the process is usually similar. He or she will only produce a clay model and even then sometimes with the help of a professional modeller. I have seen a clay model in the studio of one such modeller and the work was as much his as the commissioning artist’s. He will then get a caster (of which there are many very good ones around Carrara) to make a mould and cast it in plaster. The cast will then be delivered to the artisan’s workshop who will bring it nearly to completion. The artist will visit the workshop from time to time to make the odd comment, or in some cases not make any. Finally, the by-and-large finished piece will be delivered to the sculptor’s studio where he will smooth off the face and sharpen up the features and sign it. I have been present while a certain high profile South American artist worked in this manner and have been told by the men doing the carving that this is the case also for a certain high profile English one.
Technology
Within the last ten years or so robots have replaced artisans. The sculptor gives his model to the technician who scans it into the computer. The marble block is positioned in the CNC machine, the machine whizzes round the block removing marble with a pointed bit similar to a drill-bit and the sculpture is finished, albeit with fine horizontal lines over it. The sculptor then smooths away the lines and the sculpture is completed. (Incidentally, artisans tend to refuse to work on sculptures that have been produced by robots.)
Of course one can scan in anything one likes such as car tyres or paper aeroplanes, which is what artists are now doing.
There is nothing wrong with wanting a paper aeroplane made from marble produced by a robot. The idea is quite neat. We should, however, be aware that that is what we are getting. With this awareness comes the realisation that this is not of the same order as something made by hand, and even less so as that of a David.
Authenticity
There is a beauty to things made by hand. The best that man can offer will be more lovely than that made by a machine. For example, a computer can make excellent music utilising sampling. However, a Paganini, a Coltrane, a Pavarotti will always be in another league.
Deep and subtle knowledge comes only from intense and sustained observation, which nearly always only comes from doing. The nuances of form within a human torso, for instance, are infinite and the more of them that can be assimilated by the sculptor the better the sculpture will be. The more accurately these subtleties can be translated into marble the more authentic the artwork and what better hand to do it than the sculptor’s own? The flow of a tool from convex to concave volumes is different from one person to another and even more so from a human to a robot.
And it doesn’t end there, there is also the question of taste, of judgement which comes from exposure to the great art of the world, from years of experience, and trial-and-error. Because sculpture is an art and not a science, to make it look correct, one needs to make adjustments to compensate for optical illusions (which are surprisingly many) and the fact that marble is different to skin, fabric, wood etc. Finally, one has to know what to leave out. As in life it is often the things unsaid that give weight to the things said.
Abstract sculpture is the same, the knowledge that one applies, although it is itself abstract, is not less important. It is a misconception that in abstract sculpture the artist is able to change his design on a whim. I recently had to alter the shape of a small piece that I had started, in order to remove a fault in the marble that appeared within the mass. It set me back at least a week, as I had to reformulate the lines, the volumes and the very character of the piece. It would be similar in a figurative piece if one had to remove a swathe of drapery or even a limb (as Michelangelo did with one of his later Pietas). For me whether an abstract sculpture is correct or not is almost objective. As an experienced stonemason once told me “If it looks wrong, it is wrong”. It is as if I have no choice in the matter.
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I have tried faithfully to work in the tradition of the greats. All my work is all my own, doing every thing from beginning to end, even the casting and mould making. I take great care in selecting the best marble and if there is any doubt splitting the block myself to be as sure as can be that the block is sound. The physically demanding job of roughing out that most would get others to do, I also do. Even for the moving of the block, which some do by calling in a man with a large hydraulic crane, I have devised methods of levers, rollers (probably not dissimilar from the Egyptians!), block-and-tackle and small crane. This too means that I can always work at the right height, angle and with the correct lighting.
The somewhat esoteric traditional skill of enlarging with compasses that most fine art sculptors are unfamiliar with, I have learnt. I may use other methods too and am still picking up new techniques from other sculptors and from artisans in order to improve. I am also always on the look out for modern techniques that constitute an improvement and make tools and invent systems to solve specific technical problems. The broad work with pneumatic point and claw chisels or with diamond grinders where the flow and rhythm of the worker gives the sculpture much of its character, is all my own as is the use of a flatter claw used to refine the piece and make it “talk” (as an old artisan used to say). Then the many long hours of fining up by hand with rasps, files, diamonds and stones are also my lot to do. Mine too, however, is the satisfaction of seeing it all come together and really “sing”.