The Stone Carvers: Master Craftsmen of Washington National Cathedral (review)

The Stone Carvers is a beautiful book. It is itself a work of fine craftsmanship, with exceptional photographs of the carvers at work, examples of their workmanship, and some relevant historical photographs as well. I found it doubly curious, therefore, that in a book about master craftsmen, as stated in the subtitle, neither "craftsmanship" nor "craft" appears as a chapter heading. That said, there is much to praise about this thoroughly researched and intricately documented book by folklorist Marjorie Hunt, who works with the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and who also coproduced an Academy Award-winning documentary about the stone carvers profiled here.

Hunt was a graduate student of Henry Glassie at the University of Pennsylvania, and there is an appropriate parallel between her training and apprenticeship under this master folklore scholar and that of the master craftsmen about whom she writes. Glassie's theoretical influence permeates Hunt's discussions about these traditional artists and their work, beginning with her basic methodology: an in-depth, ethnographic study of two 20th-century Italian American immigrant stone carvers, Roger Morigi and Vincent Palumbo. "Looking to the carvers' biographies and training-to their early education and development in the craft-revealed many of the crucial elements of skill that lie at the core of the creative process and yet are 'hidden in the performer's mind' [subquote is from Glassie]" (p. 5). Hunt's extensive interviews with these artisans provided her with invaluable information to supplement her documentation of their craftsmanship. The artists' own reflections on their work were integral to her analysis of the dynamic interplay between individual creativity and group tradition.

Chapter 1, "Tradition," explores the roots of Morigi's and Vincent's craft in their Italian home towns and ancestors there, and provides a brief history of the stone carving trade in the United States from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. Hunt weaves the men's biographies into the occupational history. Chapter 2, "Learning" [the craft], again uses the two subject craftsmen's personal histories within a general discussion of the apprenticeship process in the stone carving world. The personal narratives give a more holistic portrayal of the intricate social milieu in which the learning of artistry and skills takes place than would either a strict focus on the craft itself or strictly historical documentation. The men offer colorful descriptions of their occupational folklore, such as ritualized forms of initiation. Their memories and observations reveal a fascinating balance between cooperation and competition within the groups of carvers and apprentices that appears to be an integral facet of the learning process of this traditional craft.

Chapter 3, "Process," could have been titled "Craftsmanship." It details the work of these two master stone carvers on the Washington National Cathedral, where they spent the majority of their working lives. Hunt belabors the performance analogy here: "The workshop was also the key context for performance- a setting in which carvers assumed 'accountability' to an audience for the display of technical mastery" (p. 85). Such statements drop like lead weights into the otherwise free-flowing text. But Hunt's explication of "The Carving Process" (pp. 94-132) is masterful-explicit, detailed, clearly written, and incorporating invaluable information from the carvers themselves as well as references to others such as Michelangelo, and including pertinent references from folklore scholars and art and architectural historians. The illustrations, again, are wonderful.

Chapter 4, "Stories," is strangely titled, since all of the previous chapters have incorporated quoted material from the carvers, including personal narratives. This chapter deals mostly with the men's individual creativity as expressed in their freehand carvings, and reads like a dissertation: "The stone carvers' freehand carvings are quintessential expressions of the spirit of freedom and responsibility that pervades their work-poignant, powerful statements of individual creativity and shared cultural values" (p. 136). But, again, the exquisite photographs of these gargoyles...