Four grotesques in Amsterdam-2

The four ferocious heads I reported on last week are finished. Below are some pictures.

Grotesque

These facade ornaments were carved quite freehanded at the time, which is why I have reproduced the same chisel strokes in the copies. The heads will function as the top stones in a few window arches, underneath a stone frieze. An exception is the lion's head, which has only an ornamental function. Soon a video report on the carving of one of the heads will follow.

A trail of crumbs

When I saw the first pictures of the originals, I was afraid I would recieve a handful of crumbs in a box. I know this stone: Udelfanger is well resistant against all weathering, but after so many hundreds of years of wind and weather, it finally starts to give in. Its surface starts flaking off, the stone itself starts to wash out in places where a lot of water passes, and then everything increasingly crumbles down. Once you need to take the piece down from the facade, it's not surprising that more pieces will break off, even by just taking hold of it.

Fortunately, the stonemasons who disassembled it still managed to save most of it. Which meant I was able to reconstruct it for the most part. Some things will, without any additional reference material, always remain unclear how it was at the time. It is therefore a sensible decision to preserve the originals and return a copy to its place, while the data is still readable.