Chromatic Versus Polychrome Sculpture

Leonarab,Vol. 4, pp. 257-258. Pergamon Press 1971. Printed in Great Britain CHROMATIC VERSUS POLYCHROME SCULPTURE Mortimer Borne* From the very earliestperiods of history right up to the present day, man has sought to add color to his sculpture whenever the material used did not fully satisfyhisesthetictaste. Prehistoricmanornamented his caves with incised reliefs which were subsequently filled in with colors: brown, red ochre and black oxide of manganese [l]. In the bronze age of earlyMesopotamia,thesculptorsatisfiedhisappetite for color by inlaying his bronze statues with shells and lapis lazuli. From the Amarnian period in Egypt, some sensitivelycarved heads in wood have come down to us that were painted to imitate the color of the skin with a contrasting color for the hair. Minoan, Mycaeneanand archaicGreek sculpture were also generally ornamented with color [2]. The great sculptors of the classical period in Greece, in love with the natural colors and texture of marble, were reluctant to bow to the prevailing fashion of that time (which was to superimpose colors on sculpture)but sometimesdid compromise by allowingsomedelicatefleshtones to be sparingly applied [3]. Furthermore, the sculptors of the Renaissance, from Donatello to Michelangelo, and right into the twentieth century such sculptors as, for example, Auguste Rodin, were unequivocally opposed to the addition of paint to their sculptures. They looked upon suchpractice as a vulgarism that did violenceto their work. In the Baroqueand Rococcoperiods, the practice of polychromy (the painting of sculpture) reached itshighestdevelopment. Especiallythosesculptures, destinedto be placed in richlyornamentedchurches, were colored, ostensibly to harmonize with their surroundings. Thedemandforlavishornamentation created a cadre of specialistswhose work consisted exclusively in painting these sculptures. The entire wooden statuewascoveredwith linens,then covered with a layer of gessothat was then painted in colors and overlaid with gold leaf. Polychromy was also resorted to by sculptors in recent times and is still practiced today, whether in figurative or non-figurative sculpture. Where the work is carried out in wood it is then painted over withsomecolororgoldleaftohidetheimperfections of the underlyingmaterial or to augment its attractiveness . *Artist living at 107 South Broadway, Nyack, N.Y. 10960, U.S.A.(Received 10June, 1970.) 257 Chromatic wood sculpture, a technique that I have devised and described in detail in Leonard0 [4], offers an opportunity for the wood sculptor to satisfy his need to express himself in color without making color an added appendage to his work. For any given piece of sculpture(whether figurative or non-figurative),differentkinds of hardwoods are used in their natural colorsand textures(nopaint or stain is used). Each piece of wood is chosen for color and texture, fashioned and carved when required, and attached by glue and wood dowels to other pieces to create sculpture in the round or attached to a background in the case of reliefs. The wide range of subtle variations of colors, grains and textures, as well as some intense colors like bright orange, red, yellow, purple, etc., to be found in over fifty thousand varieties of woods, offer an extensive palette for the sculptor. The brilliant hues natural to some varieties of wood are different in character to the brilliant hues that one obtains with pigments. To my way of thinking, it is this very difference that constitutes one of the distinct advantagesof the chromaticwood sculpture technique. Furthermore, the conception of the work embodies the variegated colors and textures from the very beginning and is not added to the work as decoration. In the chromatic wood sculpture mural in high relief, ‘The Family of Peoples’ (cf. Fig. l(top)), I used more than 100varieties of wood, amongthem: Beech (Denmark) Bulletwood (VirginIslands) Calunga tranchi (Rep. of Congo) Chijol (Mexico) English oak (England) Hymenen courbaril (Martinique) Mahoe (Jamaica) Mai Dhou (Laos) Narra (Philippines) Olivewood(Israel) Purpleheart (Guyana) Redwood (U.S.A.) Rengas (Sarawakand Vietnam) Yew (Ireland) In my opinion, an artist should not restrict himself arbitrarily to one form of expression,be it nonfigurativeor figurative [5]. The successof awork of art depends in large measure on the appropriate 258 Mortimer Borne execution pertinent to the concept [6],[7l and to the properties of the materials employed. In the chromatic wood sculpture mural, ‘The Family of Peoples’ (cf. Fig. 1(top)), which symbolizes ‘peace among nations’, I used...