Wood-Carving

WOOD-CARVING, the process whereby wood is orna mented with design by means of sharp cutting tools held in the hand. The term includes anything from sculpture in the round up to hand-worked mouldings to help to compose the tracery of screens, etc. (For technique, see SCULPTURE TECHNIQUE, Wood Carving.) (X.) In dealing with African woodwork, a distinction must be drawn between the Mohammedan and the fetishistic countries.

Mohammedan Art.

In the Mohammedan countries, which are mainly in the north, the art has remained decorative, and statuary has been excluded ; this is due partly to the natural bent of the Semitic race, which, coming from Arabia, has dominated these regions since the time of Mohammed, and partly to specific commandments in the Koran. Objects in daily use, furniture, and semi-architectural work are consequently almost the only forms of art for which the natives have used wood in Egypt, Trip oli, Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco, and among the scattered tribes north of Lake Chad and the Niger. Among objects in daily use, mention may be made of the powder-flasks of the Berber tribes of northern Morocco, carved with geometrical designs, and in some cases ornamented with copper studs and filigree-work; rifle-stocks inlaid with silver, ivory, and mother-of-pearl; mirrors, small chests, and boxes, similarly inlaid, particularly among the peoples more directly influenced by Egypt and the East.

Special attention paid by the Egyptians to furniture, and they have always excelled in inlaying, marquetry, and turned wood work. .There are but few types, however. Some are of a liturgical character, like the kursi, or Koran reading-desk, and the minbar, or pulpit, while others are for household purposes, like the sanduq or clothes-chest and the marfoa or dresser. These have often, particularly in Morocco, been carved with palm-leaves or conches and painted in gay colours. The Moors had also bed ends, small cupboards, and large armchairs used at marriage feasts, of chased wood, painted with delicate floral and geometrical designs. But it is in large-scale architectural decoration that the African Muslims have displayed the highest degree of skill.

The mqarbe or bees'-nest process consists in constructing arches, niches, or cupolas by placing together a large number of small wooden pales, all capable of reduction to seven fundamental forms, and each projecting corbel-wise in the manner of a trumpet. A series of these little trumpets is formed into vaults or portions of vaults hollowed out into hundreds of cells and bristling with stalactites, producing the most opulent effect.

Another process is the large-scale mosaic in wood, used mainly for ceilings and doors in magnificent buildings. For ceilings it is used in two ways : (1 ) The beams being left visible and assembled in lines agreeable to the eye, panels of various shapes being inter posed between them at intervals to produce a large mosaic pre senting various combinations and geometrical flourishes. (2) i A rough framework, which is not visible, having inlaid upon panels of wood on which baguettes and leaves of wood are applied so as to form a mosaic in relief. In the case of doors the processes are much the same, except that uprights and lintels take the place of beams and joists. This art of wood mosaic has been practised with great success, especially in Morocco and Egypt. In Morocco it has almost always been embellished with very delicate ara besques, painted with size, varnished, and gilded. In Egypt, in the best periods, it was adorned with elements in ivory, ebony, or even precious metal, with thin sheets of wood here and there.

Turned woodwork has been used mainly for balustrades and partitions. The native method is to fit little twirls between turned baguettes. Both twirls and baguettes are made on primitive lines, with a wire saw wielded in one hand, the other hand holding a chisel which is guided with the foot. The method is still in use among the Spaniards in certain Andalusian towns. Partitions of turned wood have been used chiefly by the Egyptians, for the kind of loggia called mus/iarrabieh which gives so picturesque an appearance to the streets of old Cairo.