Steve Bisco carves a Norman Romanesque corbel with an 11th-century figure
When William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invaded England in 1066 he set out to impose his Norman rule by building great stone castles and cathedrals that would leave the Saxons in no doubt as to who was in charge now. The Normans built in the Romanesque style, which featured solid, round columns and semi-circular arches decorated with chevrons and other angular features that were less subtle than the more naturalistic Gothic forms of the next century.
One such building was Lincoln Cathedral, consecrated in 1092. Much of it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1185 and rebuilt in the Gothic style, but the Romanesque west front survived. The mouldings around the west doors give us some magnificent examples of Norman Romanesque stone carving, and it is a creature called a ‘beakhead’ from one of these mouldings that gives us the basis for this project. Beakheads are devilish creatures whose evil-looking heads have projecting beaks, claws or tongues, and they inhabit the stonework around the doorway to ‘put the fear of God’ into the congregation as they enter the church. At a time when the peasants could neither read nor write, nor understand the spoken Latin mass, these images of devils reminded them of the hell that awaited them if they led an immoral life.
I have taken one of these Lincoln beakhead figures and installed it on to an oak corbel. As the stone original is laid across the door mouldings, I’ve reflected this in the carving by including two coves and two bowtells in the structure of the corbel (see box ‘Corbels, coves and bowtells’). I have also given the corbel flat sides, in the manner of a stone block that would be carved using templates to fit seamlessly into a string of blocks to create a continuous moulding.
As usual with ‘ancient’ oak carvings, I’ve darkened the oak by fuming with ammonia. If you don’t fancy that you can use woodstains, but be aware that the stain may be absorbed unevenly by the end grain and side grain areas of the carving, whereas fuming gives you an even colour all over.
Corbels, coves and bowtells
A corbel is an architectural feature that projects from a wall to support a beam, arch or shelf. In a grand building it is usually decorated with carvings.
A cove is a linear moulding that is concave and usually has a profile of a quarter of a circle. It is commonly found in wood and stonework in all architectural styles. It is called a cavetto in the Classical style.
A bowtell is a linear moulding found mainly in Gothic work that is basically an extended cylinder projecting along the front of the stone or wood.
Things you will need
Tools:
Personal and respiratory protective equipment (PPE & RPE)
No.3, 10mm
No.3, 10 & 18mm fishtail
No.5, 5, 7mm &13mm curved
No.8, 8mm
No.9, 3 & 20mm
V-tool – 2 & 6mm
2, 3, 6.5,10 & 20mm flat chisels
5mm bent chisel
10mm skew chisel
Rebate plane
18mm cove moulding plane
Various saws
Materials:
Oak (Quercus robur) 140 x 125x 340mm
Household ammonia
Norman style
The Normans famously conquered England in 1066and brought with them the Romanesque style of architecture from France, building great cathedrals with semi-circular ‘Roman’ arches and solid circular columns, decorated with chevrons, dog’s-tooth dentils and other angular mouldings with straight sharp edges. They also had a style of decorative art most famously represented in the Bayeux Tapestry, featuring stylised figures of soldiers, horses and ships that are simply and sharply delineated. The ‘beakhead’ creature in this project reflects these key features of the Norman style with its bold stark line sand sharp edges.
Preparations
1. Get a piece of oak 140 x 125 x 340mm, and make sure the top end is cut flat and square to the sides. Make a full-size copy of the drawing and trace the front and side patterns on to the wood using carbon paper and making sure they all line up. Also, trace the front and side patterns on to printer transparency film to help you redraw the patterns as you carve. Make a template of the front head pattern by tracing it on to card and cutting it out
Roughing out
2. Chiselling away large amounts of solid oak is hard work, so remove as much of the surplus wood as you can with saws, starting with the big wedge in front of the beast’s tongue. I used a circular power saw, but if you have a bandsaw with a deep enough cut that will make steps 2-4 easier3. Set up the job on your bench and fix blocks to hold it still while you work. Use a tenon saw to cut away other surplus wood below the nose and mouth, and around the coves at both ends. Be sure not to saw too deep4. Shape the front surface down to just above the pattern lines on the side profiles using a flat chisel and a rebate plane. Make sure the surface is flat and level from side to sideTop tip
Carving solid oak requires a lot of mallet work, so to avoid overworking your joints and muscles learn to swing the mallet with a steady, controlled rhythm. Hold the top of the handle for gentle taps, and the lower end of the handle for heavier hits, letting the momentum of the mallet head inflict the blow and take the shock rather than your wrist. Take plenty of rest breaks to avoid repetitive strain.
5. Now is a good time to fix your wall mountings on the back of the corbel so you can hang it up frequently to check how it looks at the normal viewing height. I used slotted mirror plates rebated into the oak6. Redraw the front pattern on the convoluted surface using the card template and the transparency. Make sure it is accurately centred, and look through the transparency to draw below it7. Cut away the surplus wood at each side of the head. On the upper part this is best done with the corbel on its side, but the areas beside the tongue are best done with it on its back. Make sure the sides are square to the front and back so the front profile is transferred accurately down to the base level and the bowtells8. Cut away the part of the mouth inside the lips down to the level of the tongue. Reduce the level of the two outer strips of the tongue and the volutes that swirl around at the end of them9. Now it gets more three-dimensional as we rough out around the nose and cheeks to shape the mouth. Check against the finished photos to gauge the contours10. Roughing out around the eyes and forehead is one of the more difficult and critical parts of the carving. Eyes have a tendency to creep down the face while being carved, so keep checking the position against the transparency. Also, make sure the eyes are cut in deep enough and wrap around to the sides of the headTop tip
When carving eyes it is very important to measure and set them out accurately as a matching pair. Take a centreline from the nose and make sure the corners of the eyes, the pupils, and the highest and lowest points on the eyelids and eyebrows are the same distance from the centre on each side. Also, use the ruler to check that each of these features is at the same level on each side – you don’t want a boss-eyed beakhead. Make sure the eyeballs are set back deep enough in the head or they will look flat.
11. Complete the roughing out by shaping around the ears and hairline. Smooth the underside of the top ‘shelf’ of the corbel
Detail carving
12. Start on the detail by shaping the coves in the top and bottom of the corbel. This is best done with a cove moulding plane, 13-18mm wide, if you have one, but if not you can do it by careful use of gouges. Be sure to keep the edges crisp13. Undercut inside the mouth a little to expose the whole of the tongue and cut a deep V in the centre. Use a 2mm V-tool to cut narrow V-channels down both sides of the tongue to give it definition, and undercut the underside of the tongue between the mouth and the bowtell14. Finish the lower end of the tongue by continuing the V-channels and cutting the incised ‘diamond’ in the end. Carve the curled volutes on each side, and finish by slightly undercutting the tongue where it meets the bowtell and the background surface of the corbel15. Refine the shape of the mouth and carve the three moustache-like bands that surround it. It is best to use a skew chisel with its angled cutting edge to slice along the ridges very carefully, as they run across the grain and will easily crumble if pushed too hard16. The beakhead’s nose is dead flat at the front. It has two pronounced curls at the nostril end, and the top end merges into the eyes and eyebrows17. Shape the eyes and eyebrows very carefully as they are a key feature of the carving. Use a No.3, 18mm fishtail gouge to shape the dome of each eyeball, sliding it sideways to get smooth cuts. Use the skew chisel on the eyebrows as the ridges run across the grain. Measure very carefully to get the pupils in the same place on each eye18. Now finish the detailed features by shaping the forehead, then carving the small pointy ears and the very spiky hair. Use the skew chisel to undercut the ‘shelf’ of the corbel where the hair and ears meet it19. Refine the shape of the cheeks and undercut around the back of the head to make it look slightly detached from the corbel20. To finish off the carving, level off the background surface of the corbel by shaving away any surplus wood, then scraping it smooth with a flat chisel held in an upright position. Check that the bowtell mouldings are perfectly cylindrical and follow through in line and level from one side of the tongue and head to the other. Use slicing cuts from a broad, flat chisel to make their surface smooth and round
21. The three photos show the finished carving from the side, front, and at an angle. Use these for reference when carving. If you want to leave it in its new oak colour just give it a coat of wax polish, but if you want to make it look ancient don’t polish it yet – get ready to start fuming
Finishing
22. To darken the oak by fuming, get a plastic tub and put in about 50-80ml of household ammonia in a shallow dish. Follow the manufacturer’s safety instructions, work in a well-ventilated place, wear face, hand/arm and breathing protection and stand back at arm’s length. Place the carving on wooden supports above the dish and seal the tub. Leave it until the oak turns a dark brown or the shade of brown you require. When you open the tub, stand back and let the fumes clear before taking the carving outFuming oak
New oak is pale, but darkens to a deep brown af ter centuries of exposure to air. Placing new oak in ammonia fumes replicates the ageing process at the rate of about a century an hour. The ammonia acts on the tannins found in the heartwood – but sapwood has no tannins and will stay pale, so make sure your oak is all heartwood. Use ‘household’ ammonia (obtainable from hardware stores) as it is much safer than industrial ammonia. Always wear personal and respiratory protective equipment when handling and working with ammonia.
23. Give the carving a coat of a dark wax polish, and buff it up to a soft sheen. The finished carving now looks like a 900-year-old relic from Norman times. Fix it just above eye level to get the best view of the grotesque creature
I really like this beakhead, Steve and think you’ve done a great job carving it, and your description of the various stages and how to tackle them is very well done. I’ve been interested in beakheads for a few years, on and off, and I had photos of a selection of them open in my browser for a couple of months every time I switched my laptop on (I saw a photo of the one you modelled yours on), every now and then admiring them and thinking about them and what to do about my interest. I’m now starting to carve (again, after about a decade ‘off’), and have been thinking of where to start, and that’s why I’ve been thinking of beakheads. I live in Scotland and I don’t think there are any beakheads up here, so I have never seen one in the flesh. Your article has shown me a way to tackle it, and has got me thinking more about adapting the ‘standard’ beakhead designs I’ve seen photos of; and I’ve thought about carving some into a caricature of a beakhead, rather than a straight copy. What I’m also interested in is where you got a piece of oak that size? I’ve been trying to see if I could get one and how much it would cost, but no-one seems to have any pieces of oak for sale online with those dimensions, and if someone has something near it, it’s a fortune to buy. And I’ve searched and searched and re-searched, and searched some more, with no luck. I’ve also thought about using your drawings but reducing the size to something more affordable, and probably in lime to be easier on my ability. Did you have an oak tree or part of one that you seasoned yourself? I’m really interested in how to acquire large pieces of timber. In saying that, a landscape gardener with chain saws etc, has just moved into our street, so I’ll be speaking to him about it soon as winter storms will soon be arriving where I live.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
One Response
I really like this beakhead, Steve and think you’ve done a great job carving it, and your description of the various stages and how to tackle them is very well done. I’ve been interested in beakheads for a few years, on and off, and I had photos of a selection of them open in my browser for a couple of months every time I switched my laptop on (I saw a photo of the one you modelled yours on), every now and then admiring them and thinking about them and what to do about my interest. I’m now starting to carve (again, after about a decade ‘off’), and have been thinking of where to start, and that’s why I’ve been thinking of beakheads. I live in Scotland and I don’t think there are any beakheads up here, so I have never seen one in the flesh. Your article has shown me a way to tackle it, and has got me thinking more about adapting the ‘standard’ beakhead designs I’ve seen photos of; and I’ve thought about carving some into a caricature of a beakhead, rather than a straight copy. What I’m also interested in is where you got a piece of oak that size? I’ve been trying to see if I could get one and how much it would cost, but no-one seems to have any pieces of oak for sale online with those dimensions, and if someone has something near it, it’s a fortune to buy. And I’ve searched and searched and re-searched, and searched some more, with no luck. I’ve also thought about using your drawings but reducing the size to something more affordable, and probably in lime to be easier on my ability. Did you have an oak tree or part of one that you seasoned yourself? I’m really interested in how to acquire large pieces of timber. In saying that, a landscape gardener with chain saws etc, has just moved into our street, so I’ll be speaking to him about it soon as winter storms will soon be arriving where I live.