• Flying buttress: dog, lion, naked woman, fat man and bird

    Eusebius, Restoration, video

    Sorry, proper translation later this week! These past few weeks I've continued carving for flying buttress 6 and 7 out of St. Eusebius's Church in Arnhem (the Netherlands).
    A short video from the church as the crow flies, with the flying buttresses. As a bonus, a short performance by my colleague Stide Fox copying a corbel.

    Flying buttress 6 and 7

    It was a motley collection I received at my yard: the Noah and his ark I described earlier, a dog, a naked lady with big feet and a broken neck plus a bird,  a very happy lion with his paw in a strange position, a fat man drinking from a large pot, and a bird which we suspected could be a Capercaillie.

    Finally Stide has a carved a Sad Badger. At least, that's what we thought. Others thought it was supposed to be a dog, but there already was a dog. It could also be a Sad Young Bear (See the slideshow below for pictures of them all).

    flying buttress figurines from flying buttress no. 6 and 7 of St. Eusebius's Church in Arnhem
    A photograph that I was sent by Slotboom Stonemasons. The Sad Badger in the foreground was carved by Stide.

    Not Beautiful

    Without wanting to be too arrogant, I dare say that the original sculptures are not of the highest standards. There was a suspicious lion with all sorts of weird flaws such as a way too thin waist, really big legs and a short tail, and a belly that doesn't make any sense. Only the head was nicely styled. I tried to imagine what went on at the time: Theo van Reijn was old and left the work to a student. I think this was carved by the student that he was not satisfied with, and that later, they adapted it to their best ability so as to still make something out of it. And someone else carved the head later.

    Bertha with the Big Feet

    Flying buttress figurine from St. Eusebius's Church of Ugly Woman with bird and thin leg

    The Naked Woman had some quirks as well: her (too large) head is in a position which is only possible if you have an owl in your ancestry, one leg was twice as thick as the other, she had no breasts and a very wide crotch, and finally she has huge feet. Those feet I have left that way, but for a few other things I had to do a little straightening out , or it would heve looked really bad in the copy. 'Nice, isn't it, boss, she's all done now!’ -"What have you done now? You've forgotten that bird's tail! Oh well, you know what, just cut that one leg a bit thinner, and then that tail will just about fit in. No-one will notice.’

    Construction Sculpture

    Now this kind of flying buttress figurines should actually have a somewhat naive look to them, to fit into the tradition. When it all gets too perfect, it loses its atmosphere and endearing effect. Also, the medieval sculpture to other churches and cathedral is characterized by that not too anatomically correct way of depiction, with a playful directness. That is one of the main features of this type of construction sculpture. That's why we did our best to rather preserve and strengthen the atmosphere of each figurine. A number of sculptures were simply copied, others, like the ark in my previous post about this series of flying buttress figurines, I've provided with some more details and expression. The female got breasts wich she's chastely covering, her legs are now both equally thick, and she has a little less surly face. Only the head is still in a weird position and somewhat on the large side. Not everything can be overcome without creating a totally different sculpture, but it has become a more acceptable thing. It also helps that the Muschelkalk is a lot lighter in colour, so it all defines a lot clearer now.

    Plastiline

    When I'm about to carve a statuette, I start with pre-cutting with the saw machine on my copying saw machine. That will copy-cut out the contours of the model into a new block of stone. So if something is missing in the original, I will cut that off as well in the copy. The machine is not computer-controlled, but simply a manually operated device. Therefore, I can still make some adjustments, but mostly I fill in the missing parts with plastiline clay, which will not harden. When I'm done I can easily take that away again, and that's just as well, because they are going to sell the originals at the Eusebius Church.

    Petra van Stijn and Gerda Mulder near the flying buttress figurines. The Capercaillie (The 'headless chicken’ in the video) I recently copied as well, see the slideshow below. Petra says very optimistic that the figurines will last for another fifty years, but that totally depends on the circumstances! If you put such a sculpture in the grass under a tree, it will crumble within ten years. Read more about the weathering of tuff.

    Claw chisel

    On the old tufa sculptures the traces of the chisels can be clearly seen. Therefore, I pay much attention to the finish, and especially the traces of the claw chisel (a serrated chisel) give it a vivid effect. Claw chisels come with flat teeth (a Gradine) and with pointed teeth. I usually use a claw chisel with flat teeth, and apply it crisscros along the sculpture surface, causing a loose effect. Other portions are emphasized with the flat chisel. See the slideshow below for the first results.

    Now I'm already busy with the next series of flying buttresses 6: a screech owl, another ark with Noah inside, a Cape buffalo and an headless Penguin. Next time more!

    Slideshow

    Right click to view images in large format.

    If the slide show does not work properly, click here.

    To the next flying buttress statue.

  • Noah and his ark: from tuff to limestone

    background, books, Eusebius, Restoration
    Noah new in Muschelkalk

    After the previous series of flying buttress statues for the Eusebius Church in Arnhem (read here now) it has been quiet at my studio for a long time -with regards to the work on the Eusebius church at least. Funding had been allocated for its restoration, but before it's finally on the bank account of the church, apparently a lot of water first needs to pass under the bridge. But now that all suffering is over with, I can speed along with the work on a series of flying buttresses on the north side of the church.

    To the first post about this project.

    Design and execution

    Noah is presawn and ready for carving
    Noah is presawn and ready to start the carving

    The characters for the first four flying buttresses were designed at the time by the Haarlem sculptor Theo van Reijn, who however in 1953 was already quite elderly and left the carving work to the much younger Eduard van Kuilenburg (ref: St. Eusebius Church in Arnhem- Elisabeth den Hartog en Ronald Glaudemans, ISBN 978 90 663 0018 7). Van Reijn was originally planning to decorate all flying buttresses with figures and animals around the theme of 'Noah's Ark,’ which however his successors after his death soon discontinued. The top stone of these four flying buttresses is always the ark, at different stages, and below these are its inhabitants.

    Cup or horn?

    Copying Noah

    The first statue I started working on was Noah himself, with something to his mouth. I first thought he was biting into a cup made of a cow's horn, and that he inserted it the other way around into his mouth in a drunken episode. But now I'm not so sure anymore, it looks more like a horn for sounds. In the book of Genesis you'll find the whole story, but I summarized in a previous post the whole story in one paragraph, if you want to read it.  In any case, at the end there is a piece about the drunkenness of Noah. But here he has a wind instrument, apparently. Instead of Noah being drunk and horny, he blows a horn.

    An ark, a pigeon, three fish and a donkey

    copying the ark

    The second flying buttress statue I started carving was the ark. I had looked forward to this piece specifically, because the original tuff was very difficult to interpret from a distance. I thought in the new stone it would all be much clearer. I had already before, when carving a small corbel with an ark made a number of planks on the boat, and thought this would work well with the big ark too. Here the pictures of before and afterwards. There is a giant pigeon on the roof, Noah is looking where the animal has gone, a donkey sticks his head through a window, and between the curling waves three big fish are swimming.

    I gave the fish some scales and the boat some boards, and furthermore I've cut all the parts slightly sharper and deeper.

    Criticism

    ark old tufa
    copying the ark

    I've discussed it once before a while ago, but I didn't just go about changing the original sculpture on my own. In consultation (with, among other, the National Office of Cultural Heritage) we discussed that the old stone species (Ettringer tufa) was so coarse that detailing was almost impossible. The restoration in this new limestone (Muschelkalk limestone) leaves some room to carve the details more clearly than before. I didn't change the entire sculpture:  everything is exactly the same size and in the same place in the new stone. I made it just a bit sharper and deeper and with some details. To me the work is a lot more interesting because of this. It is frankly a technically not too challenging sculpture, and mere copying is not always exciting, especially for such an easy piece. If I can occasionally just add to or sharpen it a little bit, then it remains fun for me to do.

    copy ark 2
    copy ark 3

    My colleague didn't totally agree. He told me that the work was made at the time in a certain style, without much frills, and that I shouldn't just go adding all kinds of things. The art of the Reconstruction Era has its own unique atmosphere and it would be unfortunate if it is lost. I do understand his objection; you're meant to be working on restoring it, not taking over the helm and sailing a completely different course. It would also be very pigheaded if I suddenly was doing completely my own thing. Therefore Noah for instance was copied exactly, except for the opening of two holes under his arm and in the rear hand, because this stone is much stronger. So will most of the figurines be accurately copied, because more definitely not always means better. But when I see that the story that's told is unclear, and there remain only vague lumps from an otherwise nice composition, then I will take that space.

    the presawing of a flying buttress sculpture (dog)

    In the meantime, I moved the saw machine and put it underneath my new hoist. This way it's much easier to lift the stone pieces on and off it. I'm already busy presawing the next two statuettes, about which more later.

    To the next flying buttress statue.

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