Sculpture
SCULPTURE art of producing in three
dimensions representations of natural or imagined forms. It includes sculpture
in the round, which can be viewed from any direction, as well as incised relief
, in which the lines are cut into a flat surface.
See also articles on special
techniques, e.g., model and modeling .
Techniques and
Materials
Sculpture embraces such varied
techniques as modeling, carving, casting, and construction—techniques that
materially condition the character of the work. Whereas modeling permits
addition as well as subtraction of the material and is highly flexible, carving
is strictly limited by the original block from which material must be
subtracted. Carvers, therefore, have sometimes had recourse to construction in
which separate pieces of the same or different material are mechanically joined
together. Casting is a reproduction technique that duplicates the form of an
original whether modeled, carved, or constructed, but it also makes possible
certain effects that are impractical in the other techniques. Top-heavy works
that would require external support in clay or stone can stand alone in the
lighter-weight medium of hollow cast metal.
The principal sculptural techniques
have undergone little change throughout the ages. Hand modeling in wax (see wax
figures ), papier-mache , or clay remains unaltered, although the firing of the
clay from simple terra-cotta to elaborately glazed ceramics has varied greatly.
Carving has for centuries made use of such varied materials as stone, wood, bone,
and, more recently, plastics, and carvers have long employed many types of
hammers, chisels, drills, gauges, and saws. For carrying out monumental works
from small studies, various mechanical means have been developed for
approximating the proportions of the original study.
Bronze casting is also a technique
of extreme antiquity (see bronze sculpture ). The Greeks and Chinese mastered
the cire perdue (lost-wax) process, which was revived in the Renaissance and
widely practiced until modern times. Little Greek sculpture in bronze has
survived, apparently because the metal was later melted down for other
purposes, but the material itself resists exposure better than stone and was
preferred by the Greeks for their extensive art of public sculpture. Metal may
also be cast in solid, hammered, carved, or incised forms. The mobile is a
construction that moves and is intended to be seen in motion. Mobiles utilize a
wide variety of materials and techniques (see also stabile ). Contemporary
practice emphasizes the beauty of materials and the expression of their nature
in the work.
History
Ancient Sculpture
Sculpture has been a means of human
expression since prehistoric times. The ancient cultures of Egypt and
Mesopotamia produced an enormous number of sculptural masterworks, frequently
monolithic, that had ritual significance beyond aesthetic considerations (see
Egyptian art ; Assyrian art ; Sumerian and Babylonian art ; Hittite art and
architecture ; Phoenician art ). The sculptors of the ancient Americas developed
superb, sophisticated techniques and styles to enhance their works, which were
also symbolic in nature (see pre-Columbian art and architecture ; North
American Native art ). In Asia sculpture has been a highly developed art form
since antiquity (see Chinese art ; Japanese art ; Indian art and architecture
).
The freestanding and relief
sculpture of the ancient Greeks developed from the rigidity of archaic forms.
It became, during the classical and Hellenistic eras, the representation of the
intellectual idealization of its principal subject, the human form. The concept
was so magnificently realized by means of naturalistic handling as to become
the inspiration for centuries of European art. Roman sculpture borrowed and
copied wholesale from the Greek in style and techniques, but it made an
important original contribution in its extensive art of portraiture , forsaking
the Greek ideal by particularizing the individual (see Greek art ; Etruscan art
; Roman art ).
Western Sculpture from the Middle
Ages to the Seventeenth Century
In Europe the great religious
architectural sculptures of the Romanesque and Gothic periods form integral
parts of the church buildings, and often a single cathedral incorporates
thousands of figural and narrative carvings. Outstanding among the Romanesque
sculptural programs of the cathedrals and churches of Europe are those at
Vezelay, Moissac, and Autun (France); Hildesheim (Germany); and Santiago de
Compostela (Spain). Remarkable sculptures of the Gothic era are to be found at Chartres
and Reims (France); Bamberg and Cologne (Germany). Most of this art is
anonymous, but as early as the 13th cent. the individual sculptor gained
prominence in Italy with Nicola and Giovanni Pisano .
The late medieval sculptors preceded
a long line of famous Italian Renaissance sculptors from Della Quercia to
Giovanni da Bologna . The center of the art was Florence, where the great
masters found abundant public, ecclesiastical, and private patronage. The city
was enriched by the masterpieces of Ghiberti , Donatello , the Della Robbia
family, the Pollaiuolo brothers, Cellini , and Michelangelo . The northern
Renaissance also produced important masters who were well known individually,
such as the German Peter Vischer the elder, the Flemish Claus Sluter , and
Pilon and Goujon in France.
In France a courtly and secular art
flourished under royal patronage during the 16th and 17th cent. In Italy the
essence of the high baroque was expressed in the dynamism, technical
perfection, originality, and unparalleled brilliance of the works of the
sculptor-architect Bernini . The sculpture of Puget in France was more
consistently Baroque in style and theme than that of his contemporaries
Girardon and the Coustous .
Modern Sculpture
The 18th cent. modified the dramatic
and grandiose style of the baroque to produce the more intimate art of Clodion
and Houdon , and it also saw the birth of neoclassicism in the work of Canova .
This derivative style flourished well into the 19th cent. in the work of
Thorvaldsen and his followers, but concurrent with the neoclassicists, and then
superseding them, came a long and distinguished line of French realist
sculptors from Rude to Rodin .
Rodin's innovations in expressive
techniques helped many 20th-century sculptors to free their work from the
extreme realism of the preceding period and also from the long domination of
the Greek ideal. In the work of Aristide Maillol , that ideal predominates. The
influence of other traditions, such as those of African sculpture and Aztec sculpture
(in both of which a more direct expression of materials, textures, and
techniques is found), has contributed to this liberation (see African art ).
Among the gifted 20th-century
sculptors who have explored different and highly original applications of the
art are sculptors working internationally, including Pablo Picasso , Constantin
Brancusi , Jacques Lipschitz, Naum Gabo , Antoine Pevsner , Ossip Zadkine ,
Alberto Giacometti , and Ivan Mestrovic . Important contributions have also
been made by the sculptors Jacob Epstein , Henry Moore , and Barbara Hepworth
(English); Aristide Maillol, Charles Despiau , and Jean Arp (French); Ernst
Barlach , Wilhelm Lehmbruck , and Georg Kolbe (German); Julio Gonzalez
(Spanish); Giacomo Manzu and Marino Marini (Italian); and Alexander Calder ,
William Zorach , David Smith , Richard Lippold , Eva Hesse , and Louise
Nevelson (American).
An element of much modern sculpture
is movement. In kinetic works the sculptures are so balanced as to move when
touched by the viewer; others are driven by machine. Large moving and
stationary works in metal are frequently manufactured and assembled by
machinists in factories according to the sculptor's design specifications.
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