Sculpting the Bust of Nerses the Great and the Statue of David

Vahe H. Apelian

Did Michaelangelo sculpt the statue of David in its entirity?

Not necessarily. Let me explain why do I think so.

Years ago Albert Arakelian, an Armenian sculptor from Armenia sculpted the bust of Nerses The Great with a background depicting Armenian cross-stone and had the two pieces placed on the grounds of the Home For The Armenian Aged, presently called Armenian Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. He did the sculpting all by himself in the one-room storage that was on the grounds at that time. He donated his artistry to the Home as a gesture of his appreciation because the Home of the Armenian Aged had provided him and his family room and board on the second floor. The seond floor is not used for resident care and reained mostly unoccupied.

I was a member of the Board of Trustees at that time and I was tasked to assist him in purchasing the pieces of the marble for this sculpting. It is from him that I learned that the sculptor does not necessarily sculpt the whole piece by himself. He told me that in Armenia there are certified chiselers who do that under the supervision of the sculptor.

What does a sculptor do and how is piece sculpted then?

Albert first prepared a small clay model of the bust. He worked the details on the clay model. He then had a solid gypsum cast made from the clay model. He told me that what distinguishes the sculptor from a chiseler is the sculptor’s artistic creation.

Once the gypsum cast was ready, he and I went to a dealer and bought the two pieces of the marble, one for the bust and the other for sculpting Armenian cross-stone for the background. Based on the size of marble piece and his gypsum model, he estimated how much to enlarge the gypsum cast model to fit the marble piece. He measured the different features on the gypsum model with a compass like measuring device he fabricted and had the gymsum model enlarged so many times. He tmarked the marble piece accordingly and started chiseling to sculpt.

He sculpted the whole piece. He said that had it been in Armenia he would have certified chiselers do that under his supervision because chiseling the stone is a very tedious and lengthy process. In this case, the process took longer than what he had experienced in Armenia because the marble is a very hard. He told me that Armenia’s famous volcanic rock called douf is relatively soft when quarried and lends itself to sculpting with relative ease and that it gets harder and harder when exposed to the elements. The longer the sculpted douf rocks are exposed to the elements of nature, the harder they get.

The other challenge he encountered was imperfection is the solid white marble in appearance. Colored veins appeared as he chiseled the marble and thus had to work around them by chiselling more of the marble to get rid of such veins while keeping the features of the bust.

Albert had a lot of experience and hence overcame such challenges. Recently I read about a young Armenian girl from Lebanon, Narine Poladian, who has moved to Armenia and has learned sculpting cross-stones and is working in that capacity. Over time she design her own and have assistants to carve her artistic creations.

I had always thought that Michelangelo sculpted the statue of David head to toe. After witnessing what Albert Arakelian did, I now remain skeptical that he sculpted the entire statue by himself. Surely he made a small model of David’s statue and had the model enlarged so many times to fit the piece of the exquisite marble he used but I envision that in all probability he had chiselers who chiseled the marble under his supervison based on the model he had created. Surely he did the finishing touches to create that exquisite piece for all times.

Naturally, Albert Arakelian did not know about the founding of the Home and wondered what to sculpt. I suggested to him to sculpt the bust of Neses the Great and presented him with a fictional drawing I had come across. Sculpting the likeness with its overflowing beard was a huge challenge but Albert Arakelian accepted the challenge.

Archbishop Karekin Hovsepian was the primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the United States since 1936. He was elected Catholicos on May 10, 1944, but had not left the country to occupy his seat in the Catholicosate of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon due to the raging of the great-war, often referred to as the Second World War. It was Catholicos Karekin I who suggested that the newly found Home For The Armenian Aged be dedicated to the Catholicos Nerses the Great whose patriarchate marked a new era in Armenian history. “Until that point, the Church had been more or less identified with the royal family and the nobles; Nerses brought it into closer connection with the people. At the Council of Ashtishat he promulgated numerous laws on marriage, fast days, and divine worship. He built schools and hospitals and sent monks throughout the land to preach the Gospel/” (Wikipedia).

Albert Arakelian’s sculpted bust stands on the grounds of the Armenian Home in Emerson, NJ with a plaque gratefully acknowledging his artistry.