Carving and cabinet-making

Wood carving

The art of carving wood was always considered the ornamental branch of sculpture, which reached it heights in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The wood carvers make a wide range of items, from religious imagery, to carved accessories for furniture. This variety of work means that a master carver must have a broad artistic heritage, a knowledge of the history of styles, feeling for aesthetics and a total mastery of drawing and proportion. Furniture carvers usually work to orders from cabinet-makers requiring decorative elements like rosettes, flowers, pinnacles, tracery, crosses, scrolls and other motifs.

Stone and marble carving

With significant production of excellent quality marble in the Sierra de Los Filabres, it is not surprising that Andalusia has notable craftsmen who carve this material. In addition, during the Roman period, several schools teaching artistic stonework were created in towns of modern Western Andalusia, working with both civil and religious architecture, as well as monuments, statues and other ornamental pieces.

The work process first treats the marble, cuts it into sheets of different thicknesses and proceeds with the work, now primarily for useful, decorative or funerary objects.

A modern trend is to integrate new materials, such as limestone rocks, sandstone, granite and some artificial compounds.

Cabinet-making

Furniture commissioned by individuals to cabinetmakers still remains a common feature in some places in Andalusia, although there is a certain tendency towards the Provençal style rather than traditional Andalusian furniture. A new interpretation of this has led to what is known as “Ronda furniture”, which has become very popular.

This traditional furniture uses pine, oak, cherry and other wood to make sideboards, plate racks, corner cupboards, tables, chairs and a wide range of objects.

Important among these is Lucena (Cordoba), which has created its own identity and is well-known throughout Spain.