Bluemel, Carl. Greek Sculptors at Work (Lydia Holland, Trans.). London: Phaidon Press, 1955.
This book is an in depth survey of Greek sculpture and the artists' techniques that created them. The author gives examples that explain the techniques of the Greek sculptor. By examining unfinished works from various museums, Bleumel points out evidence to the reader that is valuable to revealing the artist's techniques and working methods. This book reminds me of an old Sherlock Holmes episode where you, the reader, accompanies the detective to find clues to solve the mystery. Here is an example of Bluemel's writing as he describes evidence to a sculptor's working methods on an unfinished marble statue,
The sculptor had hewn out the figure on all four sides in broad, angular planes super-imposed one upon the other and was about to round off these main surfaces and link them up smoothly. Preciser details were, for the time being, of no interest. The hair, which flows down over the shoulders, is one indefinite mass. The nose and eye-sockets are hinted at but nothing more. The sculptor has not tied himself down to any set form at this stage. Since the torso was buried in the earth and the surface was therefore not exposed for hundreds of years to the effects of weather the chiselling can be studied in detail. In order to achieve this simplicity of outline the sculptor used an extremely simple tool. He adopted nothing but a bronze punch, which he applied at a right-angle to the block... The object was to loosen little pieces of the marble surface with the punch so that they would splinter off. The Greek sculptor carried on with this type of work until he could smooth the surface with emery and pumice stone. This was a wearisome task which required great patience and, in any case, did not always eliminate the traces of too heavy stroke with the punch. The surfaces of early Greek sculptures, in particular, are often covered from head to foot with little holes, the majority of which are not due to subsequent damage but are merely punch-holes that went too deep and were not completely obliterated in the process of smoothing. (pp.22-25)
These descriptions take place throughout the book with each adding another piece to the puzzle of the sculptor's craft. Bluemel also gives great descriptions of the sculptor's tools and their uses. He also gives a step-by-step explanation of the sculptor's method of using a plumb line to measure angles and calculate proportions within the figure. He also explains the difference in the sculptor's methods from the Archaic to the Hellenistic periods. He says that during the Archaic period, the sculptor would carve a figure in the round as a whole. By shaping the entire figure at once and not focusing on details until the very end of the carving process. The Hellenistic sculptor, however, carved the figure from the block from the front to the rear, adding details as the carving progressed through the block. This method is very similar to the carving methods of Michelangelo, one-thousand years later.
I found this book very interesting and helpful to my study and enjoyed reading it, although I was disappointed with the quality of the photographs. I would have liked to have seen close-up photos with more of the works that Bluemel described. This book helped me to learn the different tools of the Greek sculptor, of which, many are still used by contemporary sculptors today. Before reading this book, I did not think about how much work goes into a piece of sculpture. By the end of the book, I admired the Greek sculptor's work even more than I had before. These artists were so influential to western art. I repeatedly see their influence throughout western art history. It's amazing that the accomplishments of these artists were forgotten for almost a thousand years.