Stone Carving in the True Classical Tradition

In an age when everything seems mass-produced by a factory in China, it’s a delight to discover a stone-carving studio in New York City that embodies the Renaissance tradition of craftsmanship at the highest levels of artistic refinement.

Dan Sinclair applies the finishing touches to a custom-carved limestone mantel -- one of the major specialties of his studio.

In a previous article I wrote, I called Dan Sinclair and his DMS Studios “a national treasure.” A strong statement – but one I believe to be truer than ever. A visit to Dan’s atelier in Long Island City is like a stepping back centuries in time -- to an era when artisans toiled decades to learn their craft – and took justifiable pride in their hard-won skills. Because of its timeless ambience, the studio recently hosted the producers of the documentary film about the Piccirilli Brothers Studio – the greatest stone carving workshop in America a century ago. The filmmakers used DMS Studios to re-capture the essence of the Piccirillis’ fabled – but long-vanished – sculptural stone shop. (This wasn’t Dan’s only brush with show business: He was a performer and technical advisor on Martin Scorsese’s film “The Age of Innocence.”)

The original limestone doorway on this Manhattan apartment building had badly eroded over the years, so DMS Studios was asked to carve an exact replica.

However, Dan’s life isn’t all show business. Most of his days are spent with his helpers in his jam-packed studio filled with works in progress and blocks of stone waiting for the sculptor’s hand to expose the forms hidden within. From Sinclair’s stoneworks flows a steady stream of custom-carved limestone and marble objects, primarily mantels, architectural ornament, and sculpture.

Dan didn’t start out as an old-world artisan, however. He got a BFA from the Univ. of Southern California, then an MFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y. But, longing for something more than academic learning, Dan migrated to Italy and managed to talk himself into an apprenticeship at the Studio of Pasquino Pasquini in Pietrasanta. (This northwestern Tuscan town has been globally famous for its stoneworks and carving studios ever since Michelangelo became a customer for its high-quality marble.) Dan apprenticed in Pietrasanta from 1970 through 1975, and then returned to the U.S. to put his training into practice.

In the Studio of Pasquino Pasquini in Pietrasanta, Italy, where Dan Sinclair apprenticed, the stone carvers worked in much the same ways as in the sixteenth century when Michelangelo came to town to buy stone.

Since then, Sinclair’s classically informed work has won him many blue-ribbon commissions and numerous awards, including The Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, Augustus St. Gaudens Award, Elizabeth Greenhshields Award, and the Arthur Ross Award. He designed and carved a 19th-century marble fireplace mantel for the Lincoln bedroom in the White House, working only from a single grainy historic photograph. Drawing on his design skills and extensive reference library, as part of the same White House project he also furnished designs and shop drawings for wood carvers to produce a valence for a gilded bed and canopy in the same room. Visitors to the U.S. Capitol will also find the portrait bust of Vice President Dan Quayle carved in marble by Sinclair’s hand.

Corner close-up of the mantel made for the White House Lincoln bedroom shows the level of refinement and delicacy of classical detail. Dan designed and carved this mid-19th-century re-creation (to replace the missing original mantel) starting with just a single grainy historic photograph.

In addition to the public projects, much of Dan’s work today is for private clients, having developed a specialty in carved limestone and marble mantels. He points with typically understated pride to his “Phaeton Mantel,” a virtuoso project he both designed and carved at an exquisite level of refinement and detail. (See accompanying photo.)

Dan designed and carved the elegant Phaeton Mantel for a private client. It illustrates the story of Phaeton, son of Helios, running amok with his father’s sun chariot.

Having learned classical carving from Pietrasanta’s masters, Dan cares passionately about passing along these skills to the next generation. He has taken on his own apprentices, and has been instructor and lecturer at such places as the National Academy of Art, the National Academy of Design, and our own Institute of Classical Architecture.

To see more photos of architectural projects, mantels, and sculpture produced by Dan’s DMS Studios, visit his website at dmsstudios.com.

-- Clem Labine

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