637 



CARVENE. 



CAEYATIDES. 



638 



sive use to form a liqueur. The fruit is too familiarly known to require 

 description ; but to secure it in perfection it must be ripe, brown, not 

 green, and when rubbed or bruised it should emit a strong character- 

 istic odour. This depends on the presence of a volatile oil, which 

 exists in the proportion of 4 to 5 per cent. It is obtained and purified 

 by repeated distillation. The officinal preparations are the oleum 

 carui, aqua, and spiritus. For preparing the aqua two modes are given 

 in the ' Pharm. London, 1851,' the latter of which only is ever followed : 

 a portion of the oil dissolved, or diffused through the menstruum, is a 

 speedy mode of obtaining the object. The oil is sometimes given 

 dropped on sugar. The powers of caraway are similar to those of dill 

 [ANETHUM GRAVEOLENS], and the observations there made on the use 

 and abuse of this carminative are applicable here. 



CARVENE. [CARAWAY, OIL OF.] 



CARVING, the art of forming any hard materials into a proposed 

 shape or figure by means of sharp instruments. It is usually under- 

 stood to refer exclusively to works in ivory or wood, to distinguish it 

 from carving in marble or stone, which comes under the term 

 sculpture, except in the cutting of architectural ornaments, which is 

 regarded as carving rather than sculpture. Carving in metals is called 



The ancients used ivory to a great extent in works of art, and its 

 union with gold, called by the Greeks ckryielepltantine sculpture, was 

 adopted by the greatest artiste. The colossal statue of the Olympian 

 Jupiter at Elis, by Phidias, was one of the most celebrated examples of 

 this combination. Ivory carving was practised to a considerable extent 

 by Byzantine artists between the 5th and the 12th centuries : and again 

 by the carvers of the 13th to the loth centuries. The Italian 

 renaissance carvers (from the 15th to the early part of the 17th 

 century) executed many works of exceeding beauty as Fiammingo, 

 whose carvings of children have never been equalled; Pronner, of 

 Nunnberg; Van Obetal, of Antwerp, and others. In later tunes 

 carving in ivory has been for the most part confined to smaller objects, 

 as small figures, reliefs, enrichments of flowers, fruit, and other devices 

 on vases and cups, and such objects of general use. The instruments 

 used for carving in ivory are very similar to those employed in working 

 in marble, consisting of chisels of different sizes, saws, rasps, and files ; 

 the polishing is effected, as in marble, by friction. 



Wood of almost every description was a favourite material for 

 carving among the ancients ; and, after clay, was doubtless, from the 

 facility of cutting it, the first substance used for imitative art. Some 

 figures of very remote antiquity found in the tombs in Egypt are of 

 sycamore. In Greece many of the statues of the gods were of wood ; 

 and all those attributed to the first Daedalus were of that material, 

 from which circumstance indeed wooden figures were called AcuSaAa, 

 or Daedalian. Wood seems to have been used for sculpture long after 

 more valuable and durable materials were employed. Pliny and 

 Pausanias describe many of these works, and mention the varieties of 

 wood of which they were made. Among them were the oak, ebony, 

 fir, cedar, box, citron, cypress, beech, fig, myrtle, olive, palm, poplar, 

 vine, &c. &c. 



For a long period in modern tunes there was a great demand for 

 fine wood-carvings, and wherever Gothic architecture flourished there 

 existed very skilful carvers. The elaborately worked Gothic screens, 

 choir-seats, and desks, in most of our cathedrals and colleges, as well as 

 in similar edifices in France, Germany, and Flanders, canopies, frames 

 for doors and pictures, cabinets, and indeed every description of 

 furniture, are evidence of the extent to which it was employed, and of 

 the skill of the artists. Many of these performances display indeed 

 more ability in the workmanship than good taste in the design, being, 

 where figures are introduced, chiefly of grotesque and not unfrequently 

 indelicate subjects. But there are very many specimens of chaste 

 design, as well as careful execution. 



One of the most eminent modern carvers in wood wag Grinling 

 Gibbons, a native of England. He was much employed by Charles II., 

 particularly at Windsor Castle and Hampton Court. In London 

 the choir of St. Paul's may be instanced as a work of this artist. 

 Many of his best performances are at the country residences of some of 

 the English nobility ; the specimens at Chatsworth and at Petworth 

 are admirable imitations of nature. In our own day the art has been 

 revjved, and there are at present in this country some excellent carvers 

 in wood. Much of the hand-cut carving at the New Palace of West- 

 minster is very beautifully executed; and in the present year (1859) 

 Mr. W. G. Rogers, to whom the revival of tie art of wood-carving hi 

 England is to a great measure due, has carved in oak, in a very 

 beautiful manner, the entire fittings of a church (that of St. Michael's, 

 Cornhill), being the first complete work of the kind probably executed 

 in England since the decline of Gothic architecture. Architectural 

 sculpture, or carving in stone, has also been of late practised with 

 great spirit and feeling, and many such works now deserve to take rank 

 ai works of fine rather than mechanical art, as they used to be con- 

 sidered a few yean back. 



The woods preferred by modern carvers are the pear, lime, American 

 pine, maple, oak, and box : and the tools they employ are round 

 hollow chisels called gouges ; others with an angular extremity called 

 from the shape V tools ; flat chisels of various sizes, and files. A 

 mallet w sometimes used, but pressure, or a sharp blow from the 

 bottom or heel of the hand, i generally preferred. The surface is 



cleaned and polished with sand-papers of different qualities, by 

 pumice-stone, and by friction. 



Wood Carving by Machinery, Within the last few years machinery 

 has been applied to the carving of wood. The display of true artistic 

 feeling in carving is only possible where each specimen is made by 

 hand, and is regarded as a work of art by its producer ; but where a 

 great number of duplicate copies is needed, the work becomes a sort 

 of manufacture, to which machinery may be applied. In Jordan's 

 carving machinery the wood has movement given to it, while the tools 

 remain nearly stationary. A pattern of the work to be carved is first 

 modelled by the artist, and afterwards copied by the machine in wood 

 with perfect accuracy, and in such a manner that two or three copies 

 are made simultaneously ; the carvings thus prepared by the machine 

 are then sent back to the artist, who introduces by hand the finishing 

 touches. A very large amount of the carving in the new Houses of 

 Parliament has been effected by this machine. The more delicate work 

 for the same building, requiring hand-processes, as already mentioned, 

 was entrusted to Mr. Rogers. 



About the year 1846 Mr. Pratt patented a carving-machine, which 

 was based on another patent machine, invented by Mr. Irving, for pre- 

 paring the materials for inlaying. According to a description given of 

 it before the Institute of British architects, Mr. Pratt's machine com- 

 bines the principle of the lathe, the drill, and the pantograph. The 

 material on which the design is to be carved is fixed on a table which 

 turns on a centre. The tool, acting in the manner of a centre-bit, is 

 attached to an arm, also working on a oentre, and is made to revolve 

 with great velocity. Guided by a pattern of cast-iron, the tool, by a 

 double movement of the arm and the table, can be made to pass 

 through any combination of curves, drilling out the material as it 

 passes over it. The lines of the design are determined by the iron 

 pattern, and the depth and form of the sinking by the shape and 

 position of the tool ; and if a double moulding is required, two pat- 

 terns and two tools and a double operation are necessary. The tool 

 and its position at the end of the arm being once adapted to the 

 section of the moulding to be produced, the rest is purely mechanical ; 

 the workman guides the tool with one hand, and the table with the 

 other, and the design comes out with great rapidity. The tool revolves 

 three thousand times in a minute, and the wood is cut away in the 

 form of very fine fragments, like sawdust, leaving a smooth surface 

 behind it. The machine will cut etone with nearly the same facility as 

 wood. 



A kind of imitative carving was introduced a few years ago, in which 

 a hot iron is employed instead of a cutting tool. An iron mould is 

 prepared corresponding to the pattern to be produced, and this mould, 

 being heated to redness, is applied with great force to the surface of a 

 piece of damped wood; this process is repeated until the required 

 form is produced, by burning away the surface of the wood. The char 

 is then removed, and any requisite undercutting is done by hand. 

 When finished, the work has somewhat the appearance of old oak, and 

 the surface may be brought to a high polish. 



CARVOLE. [CARAWAY, OIL OF.] 



CARTA'TIDES (KapuinSes), female figures employed in architecture 

 in place of columns, like Atlantes and Telamones. Vitruvius (b. 1, 

 c. 1) attributes the origin of caryatid figures to the circumstance of 

 the inhabitants of Caryie, a city of Peloponnesus, taking part with the 

 Persians during the invasion of Xerxes, and their consequent punish- 

 ment : the men were slain, and the women carried into captivity ; 

 and their ignominy was perpetuated by the employment of figures, 

 similar to the women of Caryse, in place of columns. This story 

 however, is hardly worth relating. It has sometimes been conjectured 

 that these figures represent the virgins who celebrated the worship 

 of Diana; while others have thought that they represent Athenian 

 virgins carrying on their heads the sacred vessels used in religious 

 ceremonies. The use of caryatid figures is far more ancient than the 

 date of the story told by Vitruvius ; like many other forms of art, 

 they were no doubt derived by the Greeks from Egypt. [ATLANTES.] 



Six beautiful caryatid figures were employed in the Pandrosion, one 

 of the buildings on the acropolis of Athens. The northern portico of 

 the Pandrosion had six Ionic columns, four in front, and one on each 

 flank : the southern portico was supported by six caryatid figures, four 

 in front, and one on each flank. They were placed upon a basement, 

 and supported an enriched entablature. (Stuart's 'Athens,' vol. ii. 

 Plates.) One of the figures is now in the British Museum among the 

 Elgin collection. The execution of this figure is extremely fine ; its 

 height is seven feet nine inches. Three of the caryatides remain in 

 their original position, but greatly mutilated. 



At the sides of the New Paiicras church, London, and at the east 

 end, are two projecting wings with four caryatid figures in each. The 

 whole is an imitation of the Pandrosion ; but the figures are very ill 

 executed, and it need hardly be remarked how veiy incongruous such 

 figures appear as parts of a Christian church. These excrescences 

 form the entrance to the places of sepulture under the church. 



Another caryatid of a much later style of art, representing a female 

 of heroic size, of a grave and dignified appearance, is in the third 

 Greeco-Roman saloon in the British Museum, and being nearly perfect 

 shows better than the former the character of these figures, though 

 inferior to it as a work of art. This figure is draped with the 

 diploidion or double tunic, with a kind of peplus fastened on the 



