medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Genevra Kornbluth <[log in to unmask]>
> On 12/7/2010 10:18 AM, Christopher Crockett wrote:
>> the process of work was apparently (duh) from the surface
progressively down to the background, the stages of which can best be seen in
this unfinished lintel from the inside of the north portal at Fleury:
http://art-roman.net/stbenoit/stbenoit58.jpg
>> (i know of *nothing* else like this piece, btw, and would be grateful to
hear of any suchlike monuments, should anyone know of any.)
> I do know of one object that similarly shows stages of work, though in a
different medium, scale, and time: a four-sided Hellenistic gem, for several
views of which see the bottom of the page at
> http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/pre-Roman1.html
> The first photo shows only the original diamond-point sketching, before
anything was more deeply engraved. The other three main faces of the stone
show varying amounts of engraving, deepening the figures with a rotating drill
charged with abrasive grit. Unfortunately, no side is
completely finished.
what a curious method of work --one wonders why he would work *each side* in
progressive stages, rather than finish one side, then go on to the next,
finish that, then go on...
i wonder, was it because, if you got 2 or 3 figures all finished and then
messed up one, you had to throw away all that work?
of course, the Fleury lintel is worked progressively in somewhat the same
fashion --given the differences in medium, etc., and perhaps for the same
reason.
apparently a flaw in the lintel's stone --or a crack during the working of
it-- appeared and the whole thing had to be tossed, probably to accompaniment
of much Knashing of Teeth.
however, whatever flaw it was apparently did not affect the other side of the
stone, which was carved 50 years later or so and forms the lintel of the
present portal --that older face was only uncovered during the course of
consolidating the portal during the '90s of the last decade of the last
millennium.
>This is the stone that was used by Adolf Furtwängler in 1900 (and later
owned by him, and then by John Boardman, who showed it to me) to demonstrate
the process of gem engraving.
careful now, lest we Drop Names.
lots of stuff on that page i've never seen before.
this one's a Hoot:
http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/images/Gudea2.jpg
must have been Fun.
come to think of it, the only [unfinished] work i've seen that's really like
the Fleury lintel is a group of metopes from a temple in Sicily --mid-5th c. i
believe-- which i believe i may have asked John D. about on this list a few
years ago, to see if he knew of the place, which i'd forgotten the name of
(and have again, and can't even remember whether i had any success finding any
pics of it on the web.
in any event, the metopes are in various stages of completion, much like the
figures on the lintel, though all are, of course, separate stones.
the same kind of "blocking" out and progressive "realization" of the plastic
form of the figures is visible in those metapoes as we see in the Fleury
lintel.
there is also this unfinished capital from Aulnay
http://ariadne.org/cc/moissac/aulnay-unfinished.jpg
which is interesting, though not as much as the Fleury object.
> Incidentally, for sheer elegance I would nominate the Egyptian door socket
in the second row of that same web page.
http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/images/EgSocket.jpg
well, that's cheating.
for My Money, the Egyptians were in quite a quite different Class, as far as
"elegance" is concerned --and this whole dodgy Civilization Dealie has been
careening downhill at Full Speed ever since.
that's quite a bizarre bit of carving, even so, and i don't think i would have
even recognized it as Egyptian --probably would have guessed Mayan.
but, then, what do i know about that old stuff?
c
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