Female voiceover: Underneath
its ornate exterior, the sculpture, "Saint Ginés
de la Jara," has a core made of two hollow, wooden structures. On the bottom, is a
large, box-like section, which is reinforced inside
with a small wood block attatched on the front left. On the top, is a smaller hollow section. The two sections are then
glued and nailed together. Next, boards are attached to the sides, which will become the Saint's robe. A piece of wood carved
to depict a knotted rope is nailed to the front. The arms and scapular,
or sleeveless vestment, are carved, then glued onto the core. Now, the rope appears to
hang behind the scapular from the Saint's waist. Once the glue has set,
final carving is completed. To strengthen the joins,
nails are then added. The Saint's feet, hands, and
forearms are carved separately. The left forearm and hand are
made up of two individual pieces, which are glued to a dowel. The Saint's face is carved
separately, almost like a mask. The eyes, made of glass, are
inserted into the face from behind, and glued to the carved eyelids. The face, with eyes attached,
is then glued onto the head. With the general structure now complete, the sculpture is ready for the
intricate surface treatments of Estofado and Encarnaciones, creating the lifelike cloth
and flesh we see today. Female voiceover: Beginning
to shape the block of wood, the form would be drawn
on one of the surfaces that the sculptor chose. To start reducing the bulk of the wood, quite big tools would be
used initially to move fast, like saws or big chisels. (sawing) Once the basic shape had been achieved, it would be the equivalent
of a rough sketch, but in 3 dimensions. Then, the sculptor would move along
to using slightly finer tools. For example, chisels of various sizes. (hammering) (wood shaving) Then, using increasingly fine tools, the shape is actually brought
out of the block of wood. (wood shaving) (tools moving) Both in Central Spain, and in
Andalusia, was a great concern for the quality of wood to be
used in the carved figures. So, the craftsmen, and the
artists, and the sculptors were very, very aware of what sorts
of choices would be longer lasting, be more worthy of admiration, and so on. There was a great concern for
this high quality of materials. As the tools become smaller,
and more delicately shaped, it's possible for the sculptor
to work on a much smaller scale, perhaps carving the shape of a
finger, and tapering it at the point, perhaps creating the relief of the nail. He would need much smaller blades,
or cutting edges, to do that. Sandpaper would be the finishing steps
in the actual carving of the wood. There's a constant dialog in play
between the 3-dimensional form and the 2-dimensional surface decoration. They're really meant to go hand-in-hand. One doesn't make sense without the other. Estofado is the 2-dimensional
decorative layer that is the skin of the sculpture. To prepare the glue, sheep
skin would be boiled in water by clipping parchment
scraps to extract the glue. The next layer is called
gesso [gresso] in Spanish, the thick gesso. It's the glue with calcium
carbonate, or calcium sulfate, natural chalks mixed into it. After the gesso [gresso],
and gesso matte is applied, they would be smoothed. (scraping) The next stage, in this laborious
method of building up these layers, would be to apply the red bole. Bole is a special kind of clay
that has traditionally been used since antiquity, as the under layer for
applying, what we call, water gilding. When it was dry, it
would first be polished, and then very importantly a burnishing
stone, which is usually an agate, compresses the layer of bole, and
brings a lustre to the surface, and also, once again, smooths the texture. It's then ready to receive the gold leaf. the gilder would pick up the
gold leaf with a special brush called a "tip." And, with a tiny puff of air, just
apply it onto the surface of the bole, which had been dampened
with water and alcohol. Just that tiny bit of moisture would
activate the glue in the bole layer, and it would adhere the gold. When it's dried and burnished, on top, over the layer of gold, a layer
of tempera paint could be applied. Tempera paint is traditionally
made of egg yolk. The artist would prepare the
paints by grinding pigments and the egg yolk together. This would be applied over
the gold in various areas. In order to keep the pattern consistent, a paper pattern would be
prepared that could be pricked. (tapping) Then, tiny bits of pigment
would be transferred through those tiny holes, and
onto the surface to be decorated. Once the design is
transferred in this way, then the polychromer can start to
scratch, or scrape, the designs. By doing this, he would remove that
top layer of paint, the tempera paint, and reveal the gold underneath it. Then, further accents can
be given by using punches. Punches are metal tools that
are struck with a hammer to make a little indentation,
so the light plays across them with a little more drama than
just in the scratched areas. To finish, and give greater
subtlety to these surfaces in the texture and material, shading
and highlighting can then be done. Estofado technique of scratching away
and revealing the gold underneath gives more points for the
light to reflect from, and give greater definition
to the 3-dimensional form. The Encarnaciones mattes, matte
flesh tones, were more lifelike. They were more realistic because
clearly it differentiates the hands and faces from the
decorative surfaces of the fabrics. The wood would be initially sealed
with all of these layers of glue by brushing onto the sanded wood. Then, the next layer of
the preparation is chalk. This layer is called gesso
matte. It's the matte gesso. (scraping) Dried gesso would be mixed
into the glue as well to start building up the gesso layer. This would then be
applied with a soft brush, and rubbed into the wooden surface,
so it's really well integrated to that surface. When these preparation layers of
gesso in the glue have been well dried for 24 hours, they can then be
polished to give a smooth surface that will be receptive to the
paints that will then be applied. (tapping) The pigments for the flesh
tone would be prepared in oil. (scraping) In matte Encarnaciones, you
would simply paint the oil paint onto the surface that's been
very beautifully prepared in the gesso layer. You're to do a first layer
using a middle flesh tone, and using blue for areas
where there might be veins near the surface of the skin, and so on. Once that layer was dry,
again, the artist would return and would paint everywhere with
just a single flesh-tone color, but very, very thin, so that layers
underneath would subtly show through. Then finally, detail. For example, pink highlights
around the fingernails would be applied very delicately on
top of this general flesh-toned layer. [unintelligible] workshop
was a family workshop, so in some ways, it's one of the
tightest collaborative relationships that we know about in 17th century Spain.