Carving. Carving has been from the earliest times a ready means of ornamentation, or of expressing thought by tracing it in lines or modelled surfaces upon materials which were easily obtained. Beyond simple draughtsmanship, carving presents the advantages of relief and permanency, and is found to be a much more general method of adornment than colouring, notwithstanding its very pleasing effect, because the facilities for colour treatment are frequently not available. The savage, the herd boy, the artisan, and sculptor, have all shown that they were never at a loss to express their fancies in relief work, whether in materials the most common or costly. Amidst the profusion of examples of carving to be found in museums, cathedrals, and in such cities as Venice, what fascinates us most is the evidence of mind. This is not only perceived in highly finished work, but in the treatment of the design, however rude, and in the spirit that is thrown into the whole. In taking an historical view of the carver's art it will generally be found that it is at its best among people who are striving after a high ideal, whether it be the founding of an empire or the development of some great social or religious aim. In illustration of this we have but to turn to the carvings and sculptures of Assyria and Greece, the work of the Moorish and early Gothic periods, and also to the Renaissance at the time of the Reformation, when there was a general revival of both art and literature.
In times of luxury, when men's minds generally become relaxed, carved work shows as its chief characteristics high finish and dexterous execution; but these qualities too commonly speak only of expense and brainlessness, and the further they are carried the more do they evince the want of true artistic perception.
Skilful execution, however, is only of secondary importance in the carver's art, and we cannot examine the treatment of the Acanthus floriation in the hands of the Greeks and Romans without feeling the wonderful charm there is in deft manipulation; and where this clever style of treatment gives expression to elevating ideas, whether in the delineation of the human figure or animal forms, or in merely ornamental compositions, we have examples of human labour worthy to take their place alongside the highest achievements of art.
It is noticeable that nowadays there is not an all-pervading spirit among art craftsmen stimulating them to combined effort after one common high ideal, but the prevailing tendency is towards what is generally termed the Renaissance style of work. With this tendency designers and art workmen naturally turn to the examples of the Roman period from which the men of the Renaissance took their inspiration, but which in point of fine design and execution they certainly did not surpass, as the numerous examples in the Vatican and Capitol at Rome can show.
The endlessly varied forms to be found in nature must ever yield the most fruitful suggestions for the study of the carver, but it will depend upon the material he is working with how far he can approximate nature in his representations. In box-wood or lime-tree it is possible to imitate the general form of the rose blossom, while in stone it can only be very partially done. This consideration has all over the field of design been a great factor in determining the character to be imparted to the subject of study, and it is at once apparent that in carving granite its hardness and mottled appearance suggest a broader, stronger treatment than would be suitable for statuary marble. In the treatment of carving for structural work, the scale and spirit of the whole design must necessarily be kept in view, and in all the best styles of architecture a conventional treatment of natural forms is observable; and it is evident that craftsmen in this branch of industry must possess a wide intelligence in the matter of style, that they may handle their work in sympathy with the designer of the whole scheme, be it a building, a monument, or a piece of furniture of any sort.
Some methods are in use for cheapening carvers' work—e.g. in the case of scroll or fretted work in which raised forms are disposed over a smooth ground, the ornament is cut out with a fret-saw and glued to the ground. This is not at all a desirable method of cheapening work, as the process is generally too easily observed by the different colour or texture of the two pieces of wood, and there is the risk of the two woods being affected differently in the course of time by the atmosphere, and separating. Then there is a grounding machine, which has a revolving drill moving over the spaces forming the ground of the ornament. And, lastly, there is what is called a carving machine, which works with one or more drills moving over the work to be carved in correspondence with a tracing point which traverses the surface of an iron model of what is to be carved. After the revolving drill has covered the whole design, the wood block needs a little hand-facing to take out the drill marks. These methods are useful commercially, where many repetitions of the same object are desired, but a mechanical feeling is apt to show itself, and this is contrary to the spirit of the true carver's work.
A glance at the carvings of India, Persia, Japan, and China, impresses us with the cheapness of labour in these countries, and of the widespread love of this art, as well as of the great perfection that has been attained in it. But the commercial spirit of the age is causing serious deterioration of this long famous industry in these countries, owing to the desire on the part of the natives to produce what will sell in European markets, and also from the wish to produce in a month what formerly would have been a labour of love for a year.
In Great Britain, from the beginning of the 18th century till quite recently, carving was much affected by a style of work which had Grinling Gibbons (q.v.) for its chief exponent. This artist was partly of Dutch extraction, and examples of his art are to be seen in St Paul's and Chatsworth. His work is famous for its wonderful dexterity in carvings of foliage, flowers, birds, busts, and draperies in lime and other white woods. But he shows a free disregard of architectural soberness and conventionality, and impresses one at times with the idea that he desired to exhibit his skill in cutting delicate forms from solid blocks more than in the adornment of architectural work. See also SCULPTURE, WOOD-ENGRAVING. There are works on wood-carving by Bemrose (1880), Miller (1885), and others.