Early Wood Carvings In Hungary [antikvár]

The art of creating wood carvings, whether simple or complex, is rooted in the distant past and has noble traditions. Still, wood carving [cannot be considered to be the highest sculptural craft. Chronologically, bone preceded wood as a workable material for use in decorative carving; while from the point of view of durability and preciousness marble and bronze were preferable. Hence the great masters of sculptural art best expressed themselves through the aesthetic shaping of these harder, more time-resisting materials. Even in later days, when wood was sumptuously gilded, many sculptors found wood far too simple a medium. Wood carving was developed into an advanced art form by mediaeval craftsmen who formed themselves into guilds and found patrons in widely differing social strata. Its first classical flowering in Hungary falls in the Gothic period, when the arts were patronized not only by royal courts, prelates and the nobility, but also by the middle classes, tradesmen and merchants whose wealth was growing. The churches in the Gothic period were more and more decorated with elaborate wooden sculptures thanks both to the donations of wealthy churchgoers, who ostentatiously sought to prove their importance with such gifts, and to the gifts of pious societies collecting money from people who were in too modest a financial category to make individual gifts of carvings to their places of worship _ Gothic sculpture also flourished in Hungary in cities carrying on trade and industry, that is, in places which did not owe their existences to the residence of prelates, kings or landlords but developed unaided. Authorities backed these cities at most by safeguarding their rights and privileges but the taste of mighty patrons did not influence the development of art. On the contrary, all artistic products of the church reflected the demand of the middle class. 7