Sarah Rowe:
Basswood. 2006
Four Corinthian capitals
email: SCRGa@aol.com
website: www.sarahrowe.com
The 4 capitals are 19.5 inches tall with a 14" inner radius.
The columns, with the 6" bases and the caps attached, are 9' 9" tall.
My Basswood Corinthian capitals are replicas of the stone capitals on the Temple of Lysicrates in Athens, Greece, and were made on commission for a private home in Atlanta, Ga. In addition to the capitals, and carvings on the columns, the commission included a pilaster and three scroll keys. The entire commission is featured on my website. The project took 14 months (7 days a week!) to complete.
The architectural designer furnished a full size illustration of a capital and building plans for the foyer where the columns would stand. From these, my good friend, Phil Reynolds, fine woodworker and engineer, developed the measurements and the very extensive, complex construction plans. I could not have done it without Phil's guidance.
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General Notes
A barrel with a 14 degree radius forms the core of the capitals.
The capitals are a result of several processes: construction of the structural cores of the capitals to which the individual carvings were attached; steam bending and laminating veneers; and duplicating my hand carved originals on a manual duplicating carver in left and right hand configurations. The duplicator produced a bosted copy with the same orientation, shape, depth, and lines as the originals.
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Author's Images & Notes of the Work in Progress.
These are full pictures - please allow time for them to load.
Near the end of the job, I discovered that this design, which was provided by the architectural designer, is a replica of the capitals on the monument of Lysicrates in Athens.
I discovered this when I saw the illustration in The styles of Ornament by ALexander Speltz, page 54, plate # 22, item # 26. First published in 1904, it shows the capital as well as the top and bottom of a column.
I was overwhelmed by the idea of having this opportunity to recreate this ancient, delicate design and think I have been true to the original stone carvings.
A dry fit assembly of two capitals showing the structural core of the capitals which are composed of, from top to bottom, the abacus, barrel, acanthus ring, and lotus ring.
This photo shows the inside of the acanthus ring sitting in the lotus ring.
The ledge around the top of the acanthus ring will receive the tenon on the bottom of the barrel ring.
Carvings were attached to the face of the acanthus ring, but the lotus leaves were carved into the face of the lotus ring. Once glue was applied to the tenons and the rings were stacked one inside the other, the core became one structural unit.
I built 4 sets of these forms to laminate 3 layers of ¼" thick veneer to a 14 degree radius.
On my kitchen stove, in water filled trays on racks, I steamed the veneer strips just to the point of wilt before applying glue between the layers and clamping them into the forms.
The laminations became the center ovals in the middle of the barrel.
This photo shows the carved top of a column with the lotus ring sitting inside it and the acanthus ring above.
I pinned the drawings to the ring so that I could adjust each for proper spacing, and align them over a center point in each of the column carvings.
Once I had the alignment exact, I traced the drawings onto the ring using carbon paper, then carved them into the rings.
The final stage: attaching the carvings to the core.
The carvings were permanently attached to the cores with epoxy glue and pins. once filled and smoothed, the pinholes would not show since the capitals would be painted.
The center ovals were made from the veneer that I steamed, laminated, and bent over the 14 degree forms.
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