pointing

pointing A method of creating an exact copy of a statue or of enlarging a model into a full-size sculpture by taking a series of measured points on the original and transferring them by means of mechanical aids to the copy or enlargement. The ancient Greeks devised elementary methods of pointing using callipers, and some kind of mechanical device was in use by the 1st century bc, when the copying of Greek statues for Roman patrons had become an industry. Various techniques of transfer, using for example a frame and plumb line, have been used since the Renaissance, but it was not until the late 18th and early 19th century that sophisticated pointing machines became established in the sculptor's workshop (see Bacon, John). Such devices typically consisted of an upright stand carrying movable arms, each arm having attached to it an adjustable measuring rod that showed the depth to which each point must be drilled. Sometimes hundreds and even thousands of points would be taken. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries most stone sculpture was produced by this mechanical method, but thereafter sculptors increasingly rejected it in favour of direct carving.