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Wood Carving Explored

Wednesday, August 17th, 2016

Hooker Furniture Bedroom Treviso Bureau

Hooker Furniture Bedroom Treviso Bureau

Wood carving has been around long enough to be considered as old as man. Man has always been fascinated in carving wood. There are records of wooden tools being used by some of the earliest known men.

Wood has been used as a walking stick and even as a club. A rock tied to a wooden stick can already be used as a hammer. Woodcarving probably began as a pastime and so the history of furniture woodcarving was finally born.

Woodcarving – A Glimpse at History

Wood is one of the materials that are guaranteed to withstand the test of time so long as you know how to take care of them. Woodcarvings should be protected if you want them to endure.

When compared with sculptures or stone carvings, woodcarvings need more protection and care. Wood must be protected against insects and the harsh elements. There are regions where conditions are more favorable to furniture with woodcarving. An example of this perfect weather condition is in Egypt.

Wood is plentiful in Egypt. Acacia and Sycamore were both scarcely available there yet the people used them for woodcarving. These two are the most suitable wood that they could use and are even considered sacred. Almost every nation in the world practices woodcarving yet the beauty of preserved carvings were explicitly preserved in Egypt.

The Bible – the most read book in the world – even records woodcarving in many of its accounts.

The Dark Ages recorded woodcarving being both popular and unpopular. European nations confined woodcarving to monasteries. It was believed that the monasteries were the only safe places to practice this work of art.

Barbaric acts have been widely practiced during these times. From 700-900 A.D., the creation of images were forbidden in a few parts of Europe. Such images included paintings and woodcarvings.

Woodcarving was done by artists who copied Roman pagan emblems, symbols and sculptures. Majority of these artists went to other parts of Europe so that they could be employed by monasteries that were looking for craftsmen.

Woodcarving done in monasteries composed of relief carvings found on wooden panels and doors. These were quite similar from one monastery to the next. This only means that the carvers traveled from one monastery to the next as they practiced their trade.

After the Dark Ages, thousands of artists were freed and they began to create more carvings. Woodcarvers were highly influenced by the stone carvings. This was also the case with English carvings though theirs were more on decorative carvings rather than statues. Carvings were also found in Norway and Denmark.

Hundreds of years later, Scandinavian woodcarving artists were also influenced by the stone carvings from England. Visit Old English churches and you would surely find carvings done between 1000-1200 A.D. The carvings were protected from harsh elements which was why they were able to survive to this day.

A lot of wood carvings have been destroyed because of neglect, some intentionally and some by acts against churches and wars. The replacement of old carvings eventually erased what were originally found in those chapels. These improvements now conceal the beauty of the original works.

Centuries have since passed and woodcarvings have undergone a lot of changes. Man is no longer just carving with a single knife but has full access to the best carving tools. While changes have occurred through the centuries, woodcarving hasn’t died. For as long as there is wood, there would always be wood carvings.

Many other records from different nations show how woodcarvings have developed through the years. Look around you; there are also woodcarvings in furniture. Bring home one today!

This lovely piece comes from FFDM's Belvedere Collection.

This lovely piece comes from FFDM’s Belvedere Collection.

 

 

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