• Noah's Ark, up in the air

    background, Eusebius, Restoration
    flying buttress figurines with theme Noah's Ark-1
    flying buttress figurines with theme Noah's Ark-new blocks ofMuschelkalk limestone
    new blocks of Muschelkalk limestone

    Yesterday I received a new batch of stone again: seven new blocks of Muschelkalk limestone and seven old flying buttress figurines as well out of St. Eusebius's Church in Arnhem (the Netherlands). This series has Noah's Ark as its theme.

    At first glance, I thought I saw a bear, a drunken Noah, a lion and a naked lady. Presumably his daughter-in-law. And a big old ark.

    flying buttress figurines with theme Noah's Ark-naked Noah
    The nude Noah is the first sculpture that will be presawn

    Noah

    For the unreligious among us: Noah was the man who was commissioned by God to build a huge wooden boat 130 meters long, 22 meters wide and 13 meters up, with three floors.

    In it, he collected a large number of animals (seven pairs of all the clean animals, two pairs of each of the rest) and took refuge with his family in the boat when it started to rain for 40 days. After this Flood, in which all human and animal life on Earth died, Noah began a new life as a farmer and once became drunk from his homemade wine. He got upset with one of his sons over this, because he laughed when he had seen his father naked. Hence a nude Noah with a drinking horn.

    Noah's ark: new in Muschelkalk limestone, old in Ettringer tuff stone. Tower of St. Eusebius' Church
    small corbel with Noah's ark: new in Muschelkalk limestone, old in Ettringer tuff stone

    Copying… and a little more

    I have once before carved a Noah's ark for the church, in november 2014. It was a small corbel stone for the tower. This time it's the top one of seven flying buttress statuettes, and therefore also the stone that is attached to the wall of the church. As I already explained in in the message about that smaller ark from two years ago, the previously used Ettringer tufa is very coarse and is not really suited for fine detailing.

    Flying buttres sculpturines with theme Ark-damaged lion
    One of the sculptures is heavily damaged

    With another stone it would have looked different as well. So without compromising the original design there is some room for a little more detail in the copies. I think these figurines, much more than the rather Cubist angels of the previous series, can be made a lot livelier with a little extra care in finishing . I'm thinking of clearer shadow lines, slightly more detail in hair, and a structure of finishing that connects to the shaping. It's about detailing in service of the existing sculpture. If I would suddenly make those into quite different sculptures, then I would completely miss the point.

    flying buttress figurines with theme Noah's Ark-the Ark with donkey and dove
    Up till now, you'd have to look closely to see in an ark in this, but very soon, in the Muschelkalk limestone, the shapes and intentions will be a lot clearer

    Ark with donkey and dove

    The largest of the seven blocks contains an depiction of Noah's ark itself. In the photo it's not quite clear what is depicted here, and that is just the same in real life. It is a picture puzzle, but we can see a boat on some wild waves, with a huge pigeon on the roof and a donkey sticking his head out of a window. On the other side, Noah himself is looking out of a window, to see if the pigeon has already returned. Apparently not realizing that the animal has already landed on the roof. Between the waves three big fish are hidden.

    I think it's a very nice image, fitting in the tradition of church building sculpture: full of details and with figures that are completely stuffed through and on top of each other in the space a console or corner block has to offer. Not everything is anatomically correct, but it does offer a narrative, vivid sculpture. In the coming weeks, I will first begin with the simpler works before I start this block. Not because it's so hard to make, for the technical challenges of this serious work are not so bad, but in order to get into the atmosphere of this series before I tackle the capstone. I will keep you informed of the developments!

    Naar the following flying buttress figurine.

  • At night when I go to sleep… 14 angels on a journey

    Eusebius, Latest projects, Restoration
    1 Reaction
    14 angels on a journey

    Pack and go

    “At night when I go to sleep… fourteen angels follow after me.” If you were raised Catholic and are over 30, then perhaps you'll remember this prayer before bedtime. This week I too had fourteen angels in the yard, but they did not follow after me. Indeed, I've them packed for shipping. There are seven old angels out of tuff stone and seven copies in new muschelkalk limestone, for flying buttress no. 32 of St. Eusebius's Church in Arnhem.

    Disassembled

    There are in total 98 flying buttress figurines on the church. They were quite rapidly made in the years after World War II, partly in a rather cubistic Reconstruction Style. Ideally, the church council would rather have retained the original statuettes, but the decline was going so fast that it led to the risk of falling parts.

    The Eusebius Church's website says about this:

    "All the flying buttress pictures have been taken down a few years ago for safety reasons. These sculptures were all made of Ettringer tuff and can not be reinstated. The flying buttress images are to be copied into muschelkalksteen, wherein the powerful Reconstruction Aera sculptures will be brought back to their original lustre. The statuettes fit into themes such as: Noah's Ark, the Apocalypse, the Apostles, the Vices, Proclamation of the Gospel and the Last Judgement. It is being considered to design a number of completely new statues on the theme of 'Bridge to the Future'.’

    89 more to go

    After much debate, it is now decided to replace 98 all of them, and the good news is now after much humming and hawing that there is also a budget ... Stide and I have now copied 9 of those (Stide 1, I 8; Stide is mainly busy with carving large and small corbels), but it looks like we will be even busier with the other 89!

    As I mentioned in the previous post these seven sculptures represent the trumpet angels of the Last Judgment. Fortunately, there is only one that honks… Sculpture no. 7 is the top one of the series, and is partly sunken in the wall surface at the top of the flying buttress. This figurine had a number of deep holes between the wings and therefore was a bit more laborious to carve.

    New designs

    A number of the old figurines has been so severely damaged that there won't be much left to reconstruct. Therefore,, just like in the 50s,, some new designs will need to be made. This perhaps around the theme "Bridge to the Future ', as the Eusebius Church website already reports above. I don't know whether it will partly fall to me, though I hope, of course, it will. It is not surprising that new sculpture is made for old churches; any restoration will add something to the history book that such a church forms.

    Perhaps you've heard of the examples below?

    biker-with-girl-breda
    A Polish motorcyclist with Breda girl on a misericord in the Great Church in Breda, the Netherlands
    an astronaut at Salamanca Cathedral
    an astronaut at the Cathedral of Salamanca in Spain
    Angel
    'angel with cell phone’ by Ton Mooy at St. John's Cathedral in 's-Hertogenbosch

    To the next flying buttress statue

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