Direct Carving

Direct carving, sometimes called taille directe, is a sculptural technique in which the artist works the final material, typically stone or wood, directly, removing material by hand rather than first modeling the work in clay or plaster and having artisans or machines transfer the design into the final material. The technique places the sculptor's own hand and judgment at every stage of the finished object rather than only at a preliminary model, and its champions, including early twentieth century sculptors such as Constantin Brancusi, Jacob Epstein and Henry Moore, argued that a truth to materials demanded the sculptor respond directly to the grain, hardness and natural qualities of the block rather than impose a form conceived independently of it. Direct carving was championed partly as a reaction against the nineteenth century academic practice of having a master's plaster or clay model enlarged and cut into marble by studio assistants using a pointing machine.