![Angel of the North 2016 006](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Angel_of_the_North_2016_006.jpg)
Sculpture is the branch of the
visual arts
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...
that operates in
three dimensions
Three-dimensional space (also: 3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a geometric setting in which three values (called ''parameters'') are required to determine the position of an element (i.e., point). This is the informal ...
. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the
plastic arts
Plastic arts are art forms which involve physical manipulation of a plastic medium by molding or modeling such as sculpture or ceramics. Less often the term may be used broadly for all the visual arts (such as painting, sculpture, film and pho ...
. Durable sculptural processes originally used
carving
Carving is the act of using tools to shape something from a material by scraping away portions of that material. The technique can be applied to any material that is solid enough to hold a form even when pieces have been removed from it, and ...
(the removal of material) and modelling (the addition of material, as clay), in
stone,
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
,
ceramics,
wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
and other materials but, since
Modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
, there has been an almost complete freedom of materials and process. A wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by
welding
Welding is a fabrication (metal), fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing Fusion welding, fusion. Welding is distinct from lower ...
or modelling, or
moulded or
cast
Cast may refer to:
Music
* Cast (band), an English alternative rock band
* Cast (Mexican band), a progressive Mexican rock band
* The Cast, a Scottish musical duo: Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis
* ''Cast'', a 2012 album by Trespassers William
* ...
.
Sculpture in stone survives far better than works of art in perishable materials, and often represents the majority of the surviving works (other than
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...
) from ancient cultures, though conversely traditions of sculpture in wood may have vanished almost entirely. However, most ancient sculpture was brightly painted, and this has been lost.
["Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity" September 2007 to January 2008, The Arthur M. Sackler Museum](_blank)
Sculpture has been central in religious devotion in many cultures, and until recent centuries large sculptures, too expensive for private individuals to create, were usually an expression of religion or politics. Those cultures whose sculptures have survived in quantities include the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, India and China, as well as many in Central and South America and Africa.
The
Western tradition of sculpture began in
ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
, and Greece is widely seen as producing great masterpieces in the
classical period. During the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
,
Gothic sculpture
Gothic sculpture was a sculpture style that flourished in Europe during the Middle Ages, from about mid-12th century to the 16th century,The chronology of the period varies significantly according to the source consulted evolving from Romanesque ar ...
represented the agonies and passions of the Christian faith. The revival of classical models in the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
produced famous sculptures such as
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
's
statue
A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...
of ''
David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
''. Modernist sculpture moved away from traditional processes and the emphasis on the depiction of the human body, with the making of
constructed sculpture, and the presentation of
found objects as finished art works.
Types
A basic distinction is between sculpture "in the round", free-standing sculpture such as
statue
A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...
s, not attached (except possibly at the base) to any other surface, and the various types of
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
, which are at least partly attached to a background surface. Relief is often classified by the degree of projection from the wall into low or
bas-relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
,
high relief, and sometimes an intermediate
mid-relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
.
Sunk-relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
is a technique restricted to
ancient Egypt. Relief is the usual sculptural medium for large figure groups and narrative subjects, which are difficult to accomplish in the round, and is the typical technique used both for
architectural sculpture
Architectural sculpture is the use of sculptural techniques by an architect and/or sculptor in the design of a building, bridge, mausoleum or other such project. The sculpture is usually integrated with the structure, but freestanding works that a ...
, which is attached to buildings, and for small-scale sculpture decorating other objects, as in much
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...
, metalwork and
jewellery
Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a wester ...
. Relief sculpture may also decorate
stele
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
s, upright slabs, usually of stone, often also containing inscriptions.
Another basic distinction is between subtractive carving techniques, which remove material from an existing block or lump, for example of stone or wood, and modelling techniques which shape or build up the work from the material. Techniques such as
casting
Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...
, stamping and moulding use an intermediate matrix containing the design to produce the work; many of these allow the production of several copies.
![龙门-Buddha](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/%E9%BE%99%E9%97%A8-Buddha.jpg)
The term "sculpture" is often used mainly to describe large works, which are sometimes called
monumental sculpture
The term monumental sculpture is often used in art history and criticism, but not always consistently. It combines two concepts, one of function, and one of size, and may include an element of a third more subjective concept. It is often used for ...
, meaning either or both of sculpture that is large, or that is attached to a building. But the term properly covers many types of small works in three dimensions using the same techniques, including coins and
medal
A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...
s,
hardstone carving
Hardstone carving is a general term in art history and archaeology for the artistic carving of predominantly semi-precious stones (but also of gemstones), such as jade, rock crystal (clear quartz), agate, onyx, jasper, serpentinite, or carnelian, ...
s, a term for small carvings in stone that can take detailed work.
The very large or "colossal" statue has had an enduring appeal since
antiquity
Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to:
Historical objects or periods Artifacts
*Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures
Eras
Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...
; the
largest on record at is the 2018 Indian
Statue of Unity. Another grand form of portrait sculpture is the
equestrian statue
An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a d ...
of a rider on horse, which has become rare in recent decades. The smallest forms of life-size portrait sculpture are the "head", showing just that, or the
bust, a representation of a person from the chest up. Small forms of sculpture include the
figurine
A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with cl ...
, normally a statue that is no more than tall, and for reliefs the
plaquette
A plaquette (, ''small plaque'') is a small low relief sculpture in bronze or other materials. These were popular in the Italian Renaissance and later. They may be commemorative, but especially in the Renaissance and Mannerist periods were oft ...
, medal or coin.
Modern and contemporary art have added a number of non-traditional forms of sculpture, including
sound sculpture
Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...
,
light sculpture
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 ter ...
,
environmental art,
environmental sculpture,
street art sculpture,
kinetic sculpture (involving aspects of
physical motion),
land art
Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mov ...
, and
site-specific art. Sculpture is an important form of
public art. A collection of sculpture in a garden setting can be called a
sculpture garden
A sculpture garden or sculpture park is an outdoor garden or park which includes the presentation of sculpture, usually several permanently sited works in durable materials in landscaped surroundings.
A sculpture garden may be private, owned by a ...
. There is also a view that buildings are a type of sculpture, with
Constantin Brâncuși
Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian Sculpture, sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century and a pioneer of ...
describing architecture as "inhabited sculpture".
Purposes and subjects
![Moáis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Mo%C3%A1is.jpg)
One of the most common purposes of sculpture is in some form of association with religion.
Cult image
In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, including the ancient religions of Egypt, Greece and Rome ...
s are common in many cultures, though they are often not the colossal statues of deities which characterized
ancient Greek art
Ancient Greek art stands out among that of other ancient cultures for its development of naturalistic but idealized depictions of the human body, in which largely nude male figures were generally the focus of innovation. The rate of stylistic d ...
, like the
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure, about tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there. Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Gr ...
. The actual cult images in the innermost sanctuaries of
Egyptian temple
Egyptian temples were built for the official worship of the gods and in commemoration of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt and regions under Egyptian control. Temples were seen as houses for the gods or kings to whom they were dedicated. Within the ...
s, of which none have survived, were evidently rather small, even in the largest temples. The same is often true in
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
, where the very simple and ancient form of the
lingam
A lingam ( sa, लिङ्ग , lit. "sign, symbol or mark"), sometimes referred to as linga or Shiva linga, is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva in Shaivism. It is typically the primary ''murti'' or devotional im ...
is the most common.
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
brought the sculpture of religious figures to East Asia, where there seems to have been no earlier equivalent tradition, though again simple shapes like the ''
bi'' and ''
cong'' probably had religious significance.
Small sculptures as personal possessions go back to the earliest prehistoric art, and the use of very large sculpture as
public art, especially to impress the viewer with the power of a ruler, goes back at least to the
Great Sphinx of some 4,500 years ago. In
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
and art history the appearance, and sometimes disappearance, of large or monumental sculpture in a culture is regarded as of great significance, though tracing the emergence is often complicated by the presumed existence of sculpture in wood and other perishable materials of which no record remains;
[See for example Martin Robertson, ]
A shorter history of Greek art
'', p. 9, Cambridge University Press, 1981,
The
totem pole is an example of a tradition of monumental sculpture in wood that would leave no traces for archaeology. The ability to summon the resources to create monumental sculpture, by transporting usually very heavy materials and arranging for the payment of what are usually regarded as full-time sculptors, is considered a mark of a relatively advanced culture in terms of social organization. Recent unexpected discoveries of ancient Chinese
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
figures at
Sanxingdui, some more than twice human size, have disturbed many ideas held about early Chinese civilization, since only much smaller bronzes were previously known.
Some undoubtedly advanced cultures, such as the
Indus Valley civilization
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...
, appear to have had no monumental sculpture at all, though producing very sophisticated figurines and seals. The
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a Native Americans in the United States, Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern United States, Midwestern, Eastern United States, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from appr ...
seems to have been progressing towards its use, with small stone figures, when it collapsed. Other cultures, such as ancient Egypt and the
Easter Island culture, seem to have devoted enormous resources to very large-scale monumental sculpture from a very early stage.
The collecting of sculpture, including that of earlier periods, goes back some 2,000 years in Greece, China and Mesoamerica, and many collections were available on semi-public display long before the modern
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
was invented. From the 20th century the relatively restricted range of subjects found in large sculpture expanded greatly, with abstract subjects and the use or representation of any type of subject now common. Today much sculpture is made for intermittent display in galleries and museums, and the ability to transport and store the increasingly large works is a factor in their construction. Small decorative
figurine
A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with cl ...
s, most often in ceramics, are as popular today (though strangely neglected by
modern
Modern may refer to:
History
* Modern history
** Early Modern period
** Late Modern period
*** 18th century
*** 19th century
*** 20th century
** Contemporary history
* Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century
Phil ...
and
Contemporary art
Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...
) as they were in the
Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
, or in ancient Greece when
Tanagra figurines
The Tanagra figurines were a mold-cast type of Greek terracotta figurines produced from the later fourth century BC, named after the Boeotian town of Tanagra, where many were excavated and which has given its name to the whole class. However, they ...
were a major industry, or in East Asian and
Pre-Columbian art. Small sculpted fittings for furniture and other objects go well back into antiquity, as in the
Nimrud ivories,
Begram ivories
The Begram ivories are a group of over a thousand decorative plaques, small figures and inlays, carved from ivory and bone, and formerly attached to wooden furniture, that were excavated in the 1930s in Bagram (Begram), Afghanistan. They are rare ...
and finds from the tomb of
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...
.
Portrait sculpture began in Egypt, where the
Narmer Palette shows a ruler of the 32nd century BCE, and
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
, where we have 27 surviving
statues of Gudea
Approximately twenty-seven statues of Gudea, a ruler ( ensi) of the state of Lagash have been found in southern Mesopotamia. Gudea ruled between c. 2144–2124 BC and the statues demonstrate a very sophisticated level of craftsmanship for the ...
, who ruled
Lagash c. 2144–2124 BCE. In ancient Greece and Rome, the erection of a portrait statue in a public place was almost the highest mark of honour, and the ambition of the elite, who might also be depicted on a coin. In other cultures such as Egypt and the Near East public statues were almost exclusively the preserve of the ruler, with other wealthy people only being portrayed in their tombs. Rulers are typically the only people given portraits in Pre-Columbian cultures, beginning with the
Olmec colossal heads of about 3,000 years ago. East Asian portrait sculpture was entirely religious, with leading clergy being commemorated with statues, especially the founders of monasteries, but not rulers, or ancestors. The Mediterranean tradition revived, initially only for tomb effigies and coins, in the Middle Ages, but expanded greatly in the Renaissance, which invented new forms such as the personal portrait
medal
A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...
.
Animals are, with the human figure, the earliest subject for sculpture, and have always been popular, sometimes realistic, but often imaginary monsters; in China animals and monsters are almost the only traditional subjects for stone sculpture outside tombs and temples. The kingdom of plants is important only in jewellery and decorative reliefs, but these form almost all the large sculpture of
Byzantine art
Byzantine art comprises the body of Christian Greek artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the decline of Rome and lasted ...
and
Islamic art, and are very important in most Eurasian traditions, where motifs such as the
palmette
The palmette is a motif in decorative art which, in its most characteristic expression, resembles the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree. It has a far-reaching history, originating in ancient Egypt with a subsequent development through the art o ...
and vine scroll have passed east and west for over two millennia.
One form of sculpture found in many prehistoric cultures around the world is specially enlarged versions of ordinary tools, weapons or vessels created in impractical precious materials, for either some form of ceremonial use or display or as offerings.
Jade
Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...
or other types of
greenstone were used in China,
Olmec Mexico, and
Neolithic Europe
The European Neolithic is the period when Neolithic (New Stone Age) technology was present in Europe, roughly between 7000 BCE (the approximate time of the first farming societies in Greece) and c.2000–1700 BCE (the beginning of the Bronze Age ...
, and in early Mesopotamia large pottery shapes were produced in stone. Bronze was used in Europe and China for large axes and blades, like the
Oxborough Dirk.
Materials and techniques
![Mesopotamia male worshiper 2750-2600 B](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Mesopotamia_male_worshiper_2750-2600_B.C.jpg)
The materials used in sculpture are diverse, changing throughout history. The classic materials, with outstanding durability, are metal, especially
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
, stone and pottery, with wood, bone and
antler
Antlers are extensions of an animal's skull found in members of the Cervidae (deer) family. Antlers are a single structure composed of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, and blood vessels. They are generally found only on male ...
less durable but cheaper options. Precious materials such as
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
,
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
,
jade
Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...
, and
ivory are often used for small luxury works, and sometimes in larger ones, as in
chryselephantine statues. More common and less expensive materials were used for sculpture for wider consumption, including
hardwood
Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...
s (such as
oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
,
box/boxwood, and
lime/linden);
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
and other
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
s, wax (a very common material for models for casting, and receiving the impressions of
cylinder seals and engraved gems), and cast metals such as
pewter and
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
(spelter). But a vast number of other materials have been used as part of sculptures, in ethnographic and ancient works as much as modern ones.
Sculptures are often
paint
Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...
ed, but commonly lose their paint to time, or restorers. Many different painting techniques have been used in making sculpture, including
tempera,
oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...
,
gilding
Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...
, house paint, aerosol, enamel and sandblasting.
Many sculptors seek new ways and materials to make art. One of
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
's most famous sculptures included
bicycle
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist.
Bic ...
parts.
Alexander Calder and other modernists made spectacular use of painted
steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
. Since the 1960s,
acrylics and other plastics have been used as well.
Andy Goldsworthy makes his unusually ephemeral sculptures from almost entirely natural materials in natural settings. Some sculpture, such as
ice sculpture
Ice sculpture is a form of sculpture that uses ice as the raw material. Sculptures from ice can be abstract or realistic and can be functional or purely decorative. Ice sculptures are generally associated with special or extravagant events because ...
,
sand sculpture
Sand art is the practice of modelling sand into an artistic form, such as sand brushing, sand sculpting, sand painting, or creating sand bottles. A sandcastle is a type of sand sculpture resembling a miniature building, often a castle. The dr ...
, and
gas sculpture
Gas sculpture is a proposal made by Joan Miró in his late writings to make sculptures out of gaseous materials.
The idea of a gas sculpture also appeared in the book ''Gog'', by Giovanni Papini (1881–1956).
An example of pure water fog scu ...
, is deliberately short-lived. Recent sculptors have used
stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
, tools, machine parts, hardware and consumer packaging to fashion their works. Sculptors sometimes use
found objects, and
Chinese scholar's rocks have been appreciated for many centuries.
Stone
Stone sculpture
A stone sculpture is an object made of stone which has been shaped, usually by carving, or assembled to form a visually interesting three-dimensional shape. Stone is more durable than most alternative materials, making it especially important in ...
is an ancient activity where pieces of rough natural
stone are shaped by the
controlled removal of stone. Owing to the permanence of the material, evidence can be found that even the earliest societies indulged in some form of stone work, though not all areas of the world have such abundance of good stone for carving as Egypt, Greece, India and most of Europe.
Petroglyph
A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...
s (also called rock engravings) are perhaps the earliest form: images created by removing part of a rock surface which remains ''in situ'', by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading.
Monumental sculpture
The term monumental sculpture is often used in art history and criticism, but not always consistently. It combines two concepts, one of function, and one of size, and may include an element of a third more subjective concept. It is often used for ...
covers large works, and
architectural sculpture
Architectural sculpture is the use of sculptural techniques by an architect and/or sculptor in the design of a building, bridge, mausoleum or other such project. The sculpture is usually integrated with the structure, but freestanding works that a ...
, which is attached to buildings.
Hardstone carving
Hardstone carving is a general term in art history and archaeology for the artistic carving of predominantly semi-precious stones (but also of gemstones), such as jade, rock crystal (clear quartz), agate, onyx, jasper, serpentinite, or carnelian, ...
is the carving for artistic purposes of
semi-precious
A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, ...
stones such as
jade
Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...
,
agate,
onyx,
rock crystal,
sard or
carnelian, and a general term for an object made in this way.
Alabaster or mineral
gypsum
Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...
is a soft mineral that is easy to carve for smaller works and still relatively durable.
Engraved gems are small carved gems, including
cameos, originally used as
seal ring
A seal is a device for making an impression in Sealing wax, wax, clay, paper, or some other medium, including an embossment on paper, and is also the impression thus made. The original purpose was to authenticate a document, or to prevent interf ...
s.
The copying of an original statue in stone, which was very important for ancient Greek statues, which are nearly all known from copies, was traditionally achieved by "
pointing", along with more freehand methods. Pointing involved setting up a grid of string squares on a wooden frame surrounding the original, and then measuring the position on the grid and the distance between grid and statue of a series of individual points, and then using this information to carve into the block from which the copy is made.
Metal
Bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
and related
copper alloys are the oldest and still the most popular metals for
cast
Cast may refer to:
Music
* Cast (band), an English alternative rock band
* Cast (Mexican band), a progressive Mexican rock band
* The Cast, a Scottish musical duo: Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis
* ''Cast'', a 2012 album by Trespassers William
* ...
metal sculptures; a cast
bronze sculpture is often called simply a "bronze". Common bronze alloys have the unusual and desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling the finest details of a mould. Their strength and lack of brittleness (ductility) is an advantage when figures in action are to be created, especially when compared to various
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
or stone materials (see
marble sculpture
Marble has been the preferred material for stone monumental sculpture since ancient times, with several advantages over its more common geological "parent" limestone, in particular the ability to absorb light a small distance into the surface be ...
for several examples).
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
is the softest and most precious metal, and very important in
jewellery
Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a wester ...
; with
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
it is soft enough to be worked with hammers and other tools as well as cast;
repoussé and chasing are among the techniques used in gold and
silversmithing
A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary great ...
.
Casting
Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...
is a group of manufacturing processes by which a liquid material (bronze, copper, glass, aluminum, iron) is (usually) poured into a mould, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solid casting is then ejected or broken out to complete the process,
although a final stage of "cold work" may follow on the finished cast. Casting may be used to form hot liquid metals or various materials that ''cold set'' after mixing of components (such as
epoxies
The Epoxies were an American New wave music, new wave band from Portland, Oregon, formed in 2000. Heavily influenced by new wave, the band jokingly described themselves as robot garage rock. Members included FM Static on synthesizers, guitarist ...
,
concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...
,
plaster
Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...
and
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
). Casting is most often used for making complex shapes that would be otherwise difficult or uneconomical to make by other methods. The oldest surviving casting is a copper Mesopotamian frog from 3200 BCE.
Specific techniques include
lost-wax casting
Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is ...
,
plaster mould casting and
sand casting
Sand casting, also known as sand molded casting, is a metal casting process characterized by using sand as the mold material. The term "sand casting" can also refer to an object produced via the sand casting process. Sand castings are produced i ...
.
Welding
Welding is a fabrication (metal), fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing Fusion welding, fusion. Welding is distinct from lower ...
is a process where different pieces of metal are fused together to create different shapes and designs. There are many different forms of welding, such as
Oxy-fuel welding,
Stick welding
Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), also known as manual metal arc welding (MMA or MMAW), flux shielded arc welding or informally as stick welding, is a manual arc welding process that uses a consumable electrode covered with a flux to lay the wel ...
,
MIG welding
Russian Aircraft Corporation "MiG" (russian: Российская самолётостроительная корпорация „МиГ“, Rossiyskaya samolyotostroitel'naya korporatsiya "MiG"), commonly known as Mikoyan and MiG, was a Russi ...
, and
TIG welding. Oxy-fuel is probably the most common method of welding when it comes to creating steel sculptures because it is the easiest to use for shaping the steel as well as making clean and less noticeable joins of the steel. The key to Oxy-fuel welding is heating each piece of metal to be joined evenly until all are red and have a shine to them. Once that shine is on each piece, that shine will soon become a 'pool' where the metal is liquified and the welder must get the pools to join, fusing the metal. Once cooled off, the location where the pools joined are now one continuous piece of metal. Also used heavily in Oxy-fuel sculpture creation is forging.
Forging
Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which i ...
is the process of heating metal to a certain point to soften it enough to be shaped into different forms. One very common example is heating the end of a steel rod and hitting the red heated tip with a hammer while on an anvil to form a point. In between hammer swings, the forger rotates the rod and gradually forms a sharpened point from the blunt end of a steel rod.
Glass
Glass
Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...
may be used for sculpture through a wide range of working techniques, though the use of it for large works is a recent development. It can be carved, though with considerable difficulty; the Roman
Lycurgus Cup is all but unique. There are various ways of
moulding glass: hot casting can be done by ladling molten glass into moulds that have been created by pressing shapes into sand, carved graphite or detailed plaster/silica moulds. Kiln casting glass involves heating chunks of glass in a kiln until they are liquid and flow into a waiting mould below it in the kiln. Hot glass can also
be blown and/or hot sculpted with hand tools either as a solid mass or as part of a blown object. More recent techniques involve chiseling and bonding plate glass with polymer silicates and UV light.
Pottery
Pottery is one of the oldest materials for sculpture, as well as clay being the medium in which many sculptures cast in metal are originally modelled for casting. Sculptors often build small preliminary works called
maquettes of ephemeral materials such as
plaster of Paris, wax, unfired clay, or
plasticine. Many cultures have produced pottery which combines a function as a vessel with a sculptural form, and small
figurine
A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with cl ...
s have often been as popular as they are in modern Western culture. Stamps and moulds were used by most ancient civilizations, from
ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...
and Mesopotamia to China.
Wood carving
Wood carving
Wood carving is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation ...
has been extremely widely practiced, but survives much less well than the other main materials, being vulnerable to decay, insect damage, and fire. It therefore forms an important hidden element in the art history of many cultures.
Outdoor wood sculpture does not last long in most parts of the world, so that we have little idea how the
totem pole tradition developed. Many of the most important sculptures of China and Japan in particular are in wood, and the great majority of
African sculpture and that of
Oceania
Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...
and other regions.
Wood is light, so suitable for masks and other sculpture intended to be carried, and can take very fine detail. It is also much easier to work than stone. It has been very often painted after carving, but the paint wears less well than the wood, and is often missing in surviving pieces. Painted wood is often technically described as "wood and
polychrome
Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors.
Ancient Egypt
Colossal statu ...
". Typically a layer of
gesso or plaster is applied to the wood, and then the paint is applied to that.
Social status of sculptors
![Adam Kraft](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Adam_Kraft.jpg)
Worldwide, sculptors have usually been tradesmen whose work is unsigned; in some traditions, for example China, where sculpture did not share the prestige of
literati painting
Ink wash painting ( zh, t=水墨畫, s=水墨画, p=shuǐmòhuà; ja, 水墨画, translit=suiboku-ga or ja, 墨絵, translit=sumi-e; ko, 수묵화, translit=sumukhwa) is a type of Chinese ink brush painting which uses black ink, such as tha ...
, this has affected the status of sculpture itself. Even in
ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
, where sculptors such as
Phidias
Phidias or Pheidias (; grc, Φειδίας, ''Pheidias''; 480 – 430 BC) was a Greek sculptor, painter, and architect. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the stat ...
became famous, they appear to have retained much the same social status as other artisans, and perhaps not much greater financial rewards, although some signed their works. In the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
artists such as the 12th-century
Gislebertus sometimes signed their work, and were sought after by different cities, especially from the
Trecento
The Trecento (, also , ; short for , "1300") refers to the 14th century in Italian cultural history.
Period Art
Commonly, the Trecento is considered to be the beginning of the Renaissance in art history. Painters of the Trecento included Giotto ...
onwards in Italy, with figures such as
Arnolfo di Cambio
Arnolfo di Cambio (c. 1240 – 1300/1310) was an Italian architect and sculptor. He designed Florence Cathedral and the sixth city wall around Florence (1284–1333), while his most important surviving work as a sculptor is the tomb of Cardin ...
, and
Nicola Pisano and his son
Giovanni Giovanni may refer to:
* Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname
* Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data
* ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...
. Goldsmiths and jewellers, dealing with precious materials and often doubling as bankers, belonged to powerful
guild
A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...
s and had considerable status, often holding civic office. Many sculptors also practised in other arts;
Andrea del Verrocchio
Andrea del Verrocchio (, , ; – 1488), born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni, was a sculptor, Italian painter and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence. He apparently became known as ''Verrocchio'' after the su ...
also painted, and
Giovanni Pisano, Michelangelo, and
Jacopo Sansovino
Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino (2 July 1486 – 27 November 1570) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and architect, best known for his works around the Piazza San Marco in Venice. These are crucial works in the history of Venetian Renaissance archi ...
were
architects
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
. Some sculptors maintained large workshops. Even in the Renaissance the physical nature of the work was perceived by Leonardo da Vinci and others as pulling down the status of sculpture in the arts, though the reputation of Michelangelo perhaps put this long-held idea to rest.
From the
High Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo,
Leone Leoni and
Giambologna
Giambologna (1529 – 13 August 1608), also known as Jean de Boulogne (French), Jehan Boulongne (Flemish) and Giovanni da Bologna (Italian), was the last significant Italian Renaissance sculptor, with a large workshop producing large and small ...
could become wealthy, and ennobled, and enter the circle of princes, after a period of sharp argument over the relative status of sculpture and painting. Much decorative sculpture on buildings remained a trade, but sculptors producing individual pieces were recognised on a level with painters. From the 18th century or earlier sculpture also attracted middle-class students, although it was slower to do so than painting. Women sculptors took longer to appear than women painters, and were less prominent until the 20th century.
Anti-sculpture movements
Aniconism
Aniconism is the absence of artistic representations (''icons'') of the natural and supernatural worlds, or it is the absence of representations of certain figures in religions. It is a feature of various cultures, particularly of cultures which a ...
originated with
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
, which did not accept figurative sculpture until the 19th century, before expanding to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, which initially accepted large sculptures. In Christianity and Buddhism, sculpture became very significant. Christian
Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first m ...
has never accepted monumental sculpture, and
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
has consistently rejected nearly all figurative sculpture, except for very small figures in reliefs and some animal figures that fulfill a useful function, like the famous lions supporting a fountain in the
Alhambra
The Alhambra (, ; ar, الْحَمْرَاء, Al-Ḥamrāʾ, , ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the ...
. Many forms of
Protestantism
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
also do not approve of religious sculpture. There has been much
iconoclasm
Iconoclasm (from Ancient Greek, Greek: grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, wikt:κλάω, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών + wi ...
of sculpture for religious motives, from the Early Christians and the
Beeldenstorm
''Beeldenstorm'' () in Dutch and ''Bildersturm'' in German (roughly translatable from both languages as 'attack on the images or statues') are terms used for outbreaks of destruction of religious images that occurred in Europe in the 16th centu ...
of the
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
to the 2001 destruction of the
Buddhas of Bamyan by the
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
.
History
Prehistoric periods
Europe
The earliest undisputed examples of sculpture belong to the
Aurignacian culture
The Aurignacian () is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic
associated with European early modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the Levant, where t ...
, which was located in Europe and southwest Asia and active at the beginning of the
Upper Paleolithic. As well as producing some of the earliest known
cave art
In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 ye ...
, the people of this culture developed finely-crafted stone tools, manufacturing pendants, bracelets, ivory beads, and bone-flutes, as well as three-dimensional figurines.
The 30 cm tall
Löwenmensch found in the Hohlenstein Stadel area of Germany is an
anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
lion-human figure carved from
woolly mammoth ivory. It has been dated to about 35–40,000BP, making it, along with the
Venus of Hohle Fels, the oldest known uncontested examples of sculpture.
Much surviving
prehistoric art
In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate, prehistorical cultures beginning somewhere in very late geological history, and generally continuing until that culture either develops writing or other methods of rec ...
is small portable sculptures, with a small group of female
Venus figurines such as the
Venus of Willendorf (24–26,000BP) found across central Europe. The
Swimming Reindeer
The ''Swimming Reindeer'' is a 13,000-year-old Magdalenian sculpture of two swimming reindeer conserved in the British Museum. The sculpture was made in what is now modern-day France by an unknown sculptor who carved the artwork from the tip of ...
of about 13,000 years ago is one of the finest of a number of
Magdalenian
The Magdalenian cultures (also Madelenian; French: ''Magdalénien'') are later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in western Europe. They date from around 17,000 to 12,000 years ago. It is named after the type site of La Madele ...
carvings in bone or antler of animals in the
art of the Upper Paleolithic, although they are outnumbered by engraved pieces, which are sometimes classified as sculpture. Two of the largest prehistoric sculptures can be found at the
Tuc d'Audobert caves in France, where around 12–17,000 years ago a masterful sculptor used a spatula-like stone tool and fingers to model a pair of large bison in clay against a limestone rock.
With the beginning of the
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...
in Europe figurative sculpture greatly reduced, and remained a less common element in art than relief decoration of practical objects until the Roman period, despite some works such as the
Gundestrup cauldron
The Gundestrup cauldron is a richly decorated silver vessel, thought to date from between 200 BC and 300 AD,Nielsen, S; Andersen, J; Baker, J; Christensen, C; Glastrup, J; et al. (2005). "The Gundestrup cauldron: New scientific and technical ...
from the
European Iron Age
In Europe, the Iron Age is the last stage of the prehistoric period and the first of the protohistoric periods,The Junior Encyclopædia Britannica: A reference library of general knowledge. (1897). Chicago: E.G. Melvin. (seriously? 1897 "Junior" ...
and the Bronze Age
Trundholm sun chariot
The Trundholm sun chariot ( da, Solvognen), is a Nordic Bronze Age artifact discovered in Denmark. It is a representation of the sun chariot, a bronze statue of a horse and a large bronze disk, which are placed on a device with spoked wheels.
...
.
Ancient Near East
From the
ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...
, the over-life sized stone
Urfa Man
The Urfa man, also known as the Balıklıgöl statue, is an ancient human shaped statue found during excavations in Balıklıgöl near Urfa, in the geographical area of Upper Mesopotamia, in the southeast of modern Turkey. It is dated to the per ...
from modern
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
comes from about 9,000 BCE, and the
'Ain Ghazal Statues
El Ain ( ar, العين), Al Ain, or Ain is a village at an elevation of on a foothill of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in the Baalbek District of the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon.
It is famous for agriculture and trade, located on the highwa ...
from around 7200 and 6500 BCE. These are from modern
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
, made of lime plaster and reeds, and about half life-size; there are 15 statues, some with two heads side by side, and 15 busts. Small clay figures of people and animals are found at many sites across the Near East from the
Pre-Pottery Neolithic, and represent the start of a more-or-less continuous tradition in the region.
File:Loewenmensch2.jpg, Löwenmensch, from Hohlenstein-Stadel
Hohlenstein-Stadel is a cave located in the Hohlenstein cliff (not to be confused with the Hohle Fels) at the southern rim of the Lonetal (valley of the Lone) in the Swabian Jura in Germany. While first excavations were started after the second h ...
, now in Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, the oldest known anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
animal-human statuette, Aurignacian
The Aurignacian () is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic
associated with European early modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the Levant, where t ...
era, c.35–40,000BP
File:Venus von Willendorf 01.jpg, Venus of Willendorf, c.24,000–26,000BP
File:Venus-de-Laussel-vue-generale-noir.jpg, Venus of Laussel
The Venus of Laussel is an limestone bas-relief of a nude woman. It is painted with red ochre and was carved into the limestone of a rock shelter (''Abri de Laussel'') in the commune of Marquay, in the Dordogne department of south-western F ...
c.27,000BP, an Upper Palaeolithic carving, Bordeaux museum, France
File:Speerschleuder LaMadeleine.jpg, ''Creeping Hyena,'' c.12–17,000BP, mammoth ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...
, found in La Madeleine, France
File:GLAM Ice Age 238.jpg, ''Swimming Reindeer
The ''Swimming Reindeer'' is a 13,000-year-old Magdalenian sculpture of two swimming reindeer conserved in the British Museum. The sculpture was made in what is now modern-day France by an unknown sculptor who carved the artwork from the tip of ...
'' c.13,000 BP, female and male swimming reindeer – late Magdalenian
The Magdalenian cultures (also Madelenian; French: ''Magdalénien'') are later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in western Europe. They date from around 17,000 to 12,000 years ago. It is named after the type site of La Madele ...
period, found at Montastruc, Tarn et Garonne, France
File:Urfa man.jpg, Urfa Man
The Urfa man, also known as the Balıklıgöl statue, is an ancient human shaped statue found during excavations in Balıklıgöl near Urfa, in the geographical area of Upper Mesopotamia, in the southeast of modern Turkey. It is dated to the per ...
, in the Şanlıurfa Museum; sandstone, 1.80 meters, c. 9,000 BCE
File:Stone statue, late Jomon period.JPG, A Jōmon dogū figure, 1st millennium BCE, Japan
File:Solvognen-00100.jpg, The Trundholm sun chariot
The Trundholm sun chariot ( da, Solvognen), is a Nordic Bronze Age artifact discovered in Denmark. It is a representation of the sun chariot, a bronze statue of a horse and a large bronze disk, which are placed on a device with spoked wheels.
...
, perhaps 1800–1500 BCE; this side is gilded
Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...
, the other is "dark".
Ancient Near East
![Cylinder seal lions Louvre MNB1167](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Cylinder_seal_lions_Louvre_MNB1167.jpg)
The
Protoliterate period
The Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC; also known as Protoliterate period) existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, after the Ubaid period and before the Jemdet Nasr period. Named after ...
in
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
, dominated by
Uruk
Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...
, saw the production of sophisticated works like the
Warka Vase
The Warka Vase or Uruk vase is a slim carved alabaster vessel found in the temple complex of the Sumerian goddess Inanna in the ruins of the ancient city of Uruk, located in the modern Al Muthanna Governorate, in southern Iraq. Like the Uruk Tro ...
and
cylinder seals. The
Guennol Lioness
The ''Guennol Lioness'' is a 5,000-year-old Mesopotamian statue allegedly found near Baghdad, Iraq. Depicting a muscular anthropomorphic leonine-human, it sold for $57.2 million at Sotheby's auction house on December 5, 2007. The sculpture had ...
is an outstanding small
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
figure from
Elam
Elam (; Linear Elamite: ''hatamti''; Cuneiform Elamite: ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ; he, עֵילָם ''ʿēlām''; peo, 𐎢𐎺𐎩 ''hūja'') was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretc ...
of about 3000–2800 BCE, part human and part lioness. A little later there are a number of figures of large-eyed priests and worshippers, mostly in alabaster and up to a foot high, who attended temple
cult image
In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, including the ancient religions of Egypt, Greece and Rome ...
s of the deity, but very few of these have survived. Sculptures from the
Sumer
Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...
ian and
Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to:
* Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire
* Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language
* Akkadian literature, literature in this language
* Akkadian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...
period generally had large, staring eyes, and long beards on the men. Many masterpieces have also been found at the Royal Cemetery at
Ur (c. 2650 BCE), including the two figures of a ''
Ram in a Thicket
The ''Ram in a Thicket'' is a pair of figures excavated at Ur, in southern Iraq, which date from about 2600–2400 BC. One is in the Mesopotamia Gallery in Room 56 of the British Museum in London; the other is in the University of Pennsylvania ...
'', the ''
Copper Bull
The Copper Bull is a copper sculpture found at the site of Tell al-'Ubaid near the ancient city of Ur, now in southern Iraq, by Sir Leonard Woolley in 1923. The sculpture, which dates from about 2600 BC, is now in the British Museum.[Lyres of Ur
The Lyres of Ur or Harps of Ur are a group of four stringed instruments excavated in a fragmentary condition at the Royal Cemetery of Ur in modern Iraq from 1922 onwards. They date back to the Early Dynastic III Period of Mesopotamia, between a ...]
.
From the many subsequent periods before the ascendency of the
Neo-Assyrian Empire
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew t ...
in the 10th century BCE, Mesopotamian art survives in a number of forms:
cylinder seals, relatively small figures in the round, and reliefs of various sizes, including cheap plaques of moulded pottery for the home, some religious and some apparently not. The
Burney Relief
The Burney Relief (also known as the Queen of the Night relief) is a Mesopotamian terracotta plaque in high relief of the Isin-Larsa period or Old- Babylonian period, depicting a winged, nude, goddess-like figure with bird's talons, flanked by ...
is an unusually elaborate and relatively large (20 x 15 inches, 50 x 37 cm)
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
plaque of a naked winged goddess with the feet of a bird of prey, and attendant owls and lions. It comes from the 18th or 19th century BCE, and may also be moulded. Stone
stelae,
votive offerings, or ones probably commemorating victories and showing feasts, are also found from temples, which unlike more official ones lack inscriptions that would explain them; the fragmentary
Stele of the Vultures
The Stele of the Vultures is a monument from the Early Dynastic IIIb period (2600–2350 BC) in Mesopotamia celebrating a victory of the city-state of Lagash over its neighbour Umma. It shows various battle and religious scenes and is named after ...
is an early example of the inscribed type, and the Assyrian
Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III
The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III is a black limestone Assyrian sculpture with many scenes in bas-relief and inscriptions. It comes from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), in northern Iraq, and commemorates the deeds of King Shalmaneser III (reigned 858 ...
a large and solid late one.
The conquest of the whole of Mesopotamia and much surrounding territory by the Assyrians created a larger and wealthier state than the region had known before, and very grandiose art in palaces and public places, no doubt partly intended to match the splendour of the art of the neighbouring Egyptian empire. Unlike earlier states, the Assyrians could use easily carved stone from northern Iraq, and did so in great quantity. The Assyrians developed a style of extremely
large schemes of very finely detailed narrative low reliefs in stone for palaces, with scenes of war or hunting; the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
has an outstanding collection, including the ''
Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal'' and the
Lachish relief
The Lachish reliefs are a set of Assyrian palace reliefs narrating the story of the Assyrian victory over the kingdom of Judah during the siege of Lachish in 701 BCE. Carved between 700 and 681 BCE, as a decoration of the South-West Palace of Senn ...
s showing a campaign. They produced very little sculpture in the round, except for colossal guardian figures of the human-headed
lamassu, which are sculpted in high relief on two sides of a rectangular block, with the heads effectively in the round (and also five legs, so that both views seem complete). Even before dominating the region they had continued the cylinder seal tradition with designs which are often exceptionally energetic and refined.
File:Guennol Lioness.jpg, The Guennol Lioness
The ''Guennol Lioness'' is a 5,000-year-old Mesopotamian statue allegedly found near Baghdad, Iraq. Depicting a muscular anthropomorphic leonine-human, it sold for $57.2 million at Sotheby's auction house on December 5, 2007. The sculpture had ...
, 3rd millennium BCE, high
File:Statue Gudea Met 59.2.jpg, One of 18 Statues of Gudea
Approximately twenty-seven statues of Gudea, a ruler ( ensi) of the state of Lagash have been found in southern Mesopotamia. Gudea ruled between c. 2144–2124 BC and the statues demonstrate a very sophisticated level of craftsmanship for the ...
, a ruler around 2090 BCE
File:Lilith Periodo de Isin Larsa y Babilonia.JPG, The Burney Relief
The Burney Relief (also known as the Queen of the Night relief) is a Mesopotamian terracotta plaque in high relief of the Isin-Larsa period or Old- Babylonian period, depicting a winged, nude, goddess-like figure with bird's talons, flanked by ...
, Old Babylonian, around 1800 BCE
File:Sculpted reliefs depicting Ashurbanipal, the last great Assyrian king, hunting lions, gypsum hall relief from the North Palace of Nineveh (Irak), c. 645-635 BC, British Museum (16722368932).jpg, Part of the '' Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal'', c. 640 BCE, Nineveh
Nineveh (; akk, ; Biblical Hebrew: '; ar, نَيْنَوَىٰ '; syr, ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ, Nīnwē) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern ban ...
Ancient Egypt
![Nofretete Neues Museum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Nofretete_Neues_Museum.jpg)
The
monumental sculpture
The term monumental sculpture is often used in art history and criticism, but not always consistently. It combines two concepts, one of function, and one of size, and may include an element of a third more subjective concept. It is often used for ...
of ancient Egypt is world-famous, but refined and delicate small works exist in much greater numbers. The Egyptians used the distinctive technique of
sunk relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
, which is well suited to very bright sunlight. The main figures in reliefs adhere to the same figure convention as in painting, with parted legs (where not seated) and head shown from the side, but the torso from the front, and a standard set of proportions making up the figure, using 18 "fists" to go from the ground to the hair-line on the forehead. This appears as early as the
Narmer Palette from Dynasty I. However, there as elsewhere the convention is not used for minor figures shown engaged in some activity, such as the captives and corpses. Other conventions make statues of males darker than females ones. Very conventionalized portrait statues appear from as early as Dynasty II, before 2,780 BCE, and with the exception of the
art of the Amarna period of
Ahkenaten
Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dy ...
, and some other periods such as Dynasty XII, the idealized features of rulers, like other Egyptian artistic conventions, changed little until after the Greek conquest.
Egyptian
pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...
s were always regarded as deities, but other deities are much less common in large statues, except when they represent the pharaoh ''as'' another deity; however the other deities are frequently shown in paintings and reliefs. The famous row of four colossal statues outside the
main temple at Abu Simbel each show
Rameses II
Ramesses II ( egy, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is often regarded as t ...
, a typical scheme, though here exceptionally large. Small figures of deities, or their animal personifications, are very common, and found in popular materials such as pottery. Most larger sculpture survives from
Egyptian temple
Egyptian temples were built for the official worship of the gods and in commemoration of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt and regions under Egyptian control. Temples were seen as houses for the gods or kings to whom they were dedicated. Within the ...
s or tombs; by Dynasty IV (2680–2565 BCE) at the latest the idea of the
Ka statue
A ka statue is a type of ancient Egyptian statue intended to provide a resting place for the '' ka'' (life-force or spirit) of the person after death. The ancient Egyptians believed the ''ka'', along with the physical body, the name, the '' ba'' ...
was firmly established. These were put in tombs as a resting place for the
''ka'' portion of the soul, and so we have a good number of less conventionalized statues of well-off administrators and their wives, many in wood as Egypt is one of the few places in the world where the climate allows wood to survive over millennia. The so-called
reserve head
Reserve heads (also known as "Magical heads" or "Replacement heads", the latter term derived from the original German term "Ersatzköpfe") are distinctive sculptures made primarily of fine limestone that have been found in a number of non-royal to ...
s, plain hairless heads, are especially naturalistic. Early tombs also contained small models of the slaves, animals, buildings and objects such as boats necessary for the deceased to continue his lifestyle in the afterworld, and later ''
Ushabti
The ushabti (also called shabti or shawabti, with a number of variant spellings) was a funerary figurine used in ancient Egyptian funerary practices. The Egyptological term is derived from , which replaced earlier , perhaps the nisba of "' ...
'' figures.
File:Narmer Palette, Egypt, c. 3100 BC - Royal Ontario Museum - DSC09726.JPG, Facsimile
A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, Old master print, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from ...
of the Narmer Palette, c. 3100 BCE, which already shows the canonical Egyptian profile view and proportions of the figure
File:King Menkaura (Mycerinus) and queen.jpg, Menkaura (Mycerinus) and queen, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, 2490–2472 BCE. The formality of the pose is reduced by the queen's arm round her husband
File:GD-EG-Caire-Musée120.JPG, Wooden tomb models, Dynasty XI; a high administrator counts his cattle
File:Tuthankhamun Egyptian Museum.jpg, Tutankhamun's mask, c. late Eighteenth dynasty, Egyptian Museum
File:BM, AES Egyptian Sulpture ~ Colossal bust of Ramesses II, the 'Younger Memnon' (1250 BC) (Room 4).jpg, ''The Younger Memnon
The Younger Memnon is an Ancient Egyptian statue, one of two colossal granite heads from the Ramesseum mortuary temple in Thebes, Upper Egypt. It depicts the Nineteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II wearing the Nemes head-dress with a cobra diade ...
'' c. 1250 BCE, British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
File:Egypte louvre 066.jpg, Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...
on a lapis lazuli
Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color.
As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, ...
pillar in the middle, flanked by Horus
Horus or Heru, Hor, Har in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as god of kingship and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the P ...
on the left, and Isis
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
on the right, 22nd dynasty, Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
File:Ka Statue of horawibra.jpg, The ka statue
A ka statue is a type of ancient Egyptian statue intended to provide a resting place for the '' ka'' (life-force or spirit) of the person after death. The ancient Egyptians believed the ''ka'', along with the physical body, the name, the '' ba'' ...
provided a physical place for the ka to manifest. Egyptian Museum, Cairo
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display ...
File:Block statue Pa-Akh-Ra CdM.jpg, Block statue
The block statue is a type of memorial statue that first emerged in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. The block statue grew in popularity in the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period, and by the Late Period, this type of statue was the most ...
of Pa-Ankh-Ra, ship master, bearing a statue of Ptah. Late Period, c. 650–633 BCE, Cabinet des Médailles
Europe
Ancient Greece
![Vognstyreren-fra Delfi2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Vognstyreren-fra_Delfi2.jpg)
The first distinctive style of
ancient Greek sculpture developed in the Early Bronze Age
Cycladic period (3rd millennium BCE), where marble figures, usually female and small, are represented in an elegantly simplified geometrical style. Most typical is a standing pose with arms crossed in front, but other figures are shown in different poses, including a complicated figure of a harpist seated on a chair.
The subsequent
Minoan
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...
and
Mycenaean cultures developed sculpture further, under influence from Syria and elsewhere, but it is in the later
Archaic period from around 650 BCE that the
kouros developed. These are large standing statues of naked youths, found in temples and tombs, with the
kore as the clothed female equivalent, with elaborately dressed hair; both have the "
archaic smile
The archaic smile was used by sculptors in Archaic Greece, especially in the second quarter of the 6th century BCE, possibly to suggest that their subject was alive and infused with a sense of well-being. One of the most famous examples of the ar ...
". They seem to have served a number of functions, perhaps sometimes representing deities and sometimes the person buried in a grave, as with the
Kroisos Kouros
The Kroisos Kouros ( grc, κοῦρος) is a marble kouros from Anavyssos (Ανάβυσσος) in Attica which functioned as a grave marker for a fallen young warrior named Kroisos ().
Overview
The free-standing sculpture strides forward with t ...
. They are clearly influenced by Egyptian and Syrian styles, but the Greek artists were much more ready to experiment within the style.
During the 6th century Greek sculpture developed rapidly, becoming more naturalistic, and with much more active and varied figure poses in narrative scenes, though still within idealized conventions. Sculptured
pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedimen ...
s were added to
temples
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
, including the
Parthenon in Athens, where the remains of the pediment of around 520 using figures in the round were fortunately used as infill for new buildings after the Persian sack in 480 BCE, and recovered from the 1880s on in fresh unweathered condition. Other significant remains of architectural sculpture come from
Paestum in Italy,
Corfu
Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...
,
Delphi
Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The oracle ...
and the
Temple of Aphaea in
Aegina
Aegina (; el, Αίγινα, ''Aígina'' ; grc, Αἴγῑνα) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina (mythology), Aegina, the mother of the hero Aeacus, who was born ...
(much now in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
). Most Greek sculpture originally included at least some colour; the
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, has done extensive research and recreation of the original colours.
File:Head figurine Spedos Louvre Ma2709.jpg, Cycladic statue 2700–2300 BCE. Head from the figure of a woman, H.
File:Goulandris Master - Cycladic Female Figurine - Walters 23253.jpg, Cycladic Female Figurine, c. 2500–2400 BCE, high
File:Exhibit Archaeologycal Museum Athens.JPG, Mycenae, 1600−1500 BCE. Silver rhyton with gold horns and rosette on the forehead
File:Marble statue of a kouros (youth) MET DT263.jpg, Lifesize New York Kouros
The New York Kouros is an early example of life-sized statuary in Greece. The marble statue of a Greek youth, ''kouros'', was carved in Attica, has an Egyptian pose, and is otherwise separated from the block of stone. It is named for its current ...
, c. 590–580 BCE, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
File:028MAD Sphinx.jpg, The "Naxian
Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best abr ...
Sphinx" from Delphi
Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The oracle ...
, 570–560 BCE, the figure high
File:ACMA 679 Kore 1.JPG, '' Peplos Kore'', c. 530 BCE, Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, Acropolis Museum
The Acropolis Museum ( el, Μουσείο Ακρόπολης, ''Mouseio Akropolis'') is an archaeological museum focused on the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens. The museum was built to house every artifact found on ...
File:Aphaia pediment Laomedon E-XI Glyptothek Munich 85.jpg, Late Archaic warrior from the east pediment of the Temple of Aphaea, c. 500
File:Limestone sarcophagus- the Amathus sarcophagus MET DT257.jpg, The Amathus sarcophagus
The Amathus sarcophagus is a Cypriot sarcophagus that likely held a king of Amathus. Its sides show procession scenes, and typify Cypriot, Greek, and Phoenician-Near Eastern styles of the mid-fifth century BCE. The sarcophagus was excavated by ...
, from Amathus, Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
, 2nd quarter of the 5th century BCE Archaic period, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
=Classical
=
![South metope 27 Parthenon BM](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/South_metope_27_Parthenon_BM.jpg)
There are fewer original remains from the first phase of the Classical period, often called the
Severe style; free-standing statues were now mostly made in bronze, which always had value as scrap. The Severe style lasted from around 500 in reliefs, and soon after 480 in statues, to about 450. The relatively rigid poses of figures relaxed, and asymmetrical turning positions and oblique views became common, and deliberately sought. This was combined with a better understanding of anatomy and the harmonious structure of sculpted figures, and the pursuit of naturalistic representation as an aim, which had not been present before. Excavations at the
Temple of Zeus, Olympia
The Temple of Zeus at Olympia was an ancient Greek temple in Olympia, Greece, dedicated to the god Zeus. The temple, built in the second quarter of the fifth century BC, was the very model of the fully developed classical Greek temple of the Dor ...
since 1829 have revealed the largest group of remains, from about 460, of which many are in the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
.
The "High Classical" period lasted only a few decades from about 450 to 400, but has had a momentous influence on art, and retains a special prestige, despite a very restricted number of original survivals. The best known works are the
Parthenon Marbles, traditionally (since
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...
) executed by a team led by the most famous ancient Greek sculptor
Phidias
Phidias or Pheidias (; grc, Φειδίας, ''Pheidias''; 480 – 430 BC) was a Greek sculptor, painter, and architect. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the stat ...
, active from about 465–425, who was in his own day more famous for his colossal
chryselephantine Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure, about tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there. Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Gr ...
(c. 432), one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, also known as the Seven Wonders of the World or simply the Seven Wonders, is a list of seven notable structures present during classical antiquity. The first known list of seven wonders dates back to the 2 ...
, his ''
Athena Parthenos'' (438), the cult image of the
Parthenon, and ''
Athena Promachos
The ''Athena Promachos'' (, "Athena who fights in the front line") was a colossal bronze statue of Athena sculpted by Pheidias, which stood between the Propylaea and the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. Athena was the tutelary deity of Ath ...
'', a colossal bronze figure that stood next to the Parthenon; all of these are lost but are known from many representations. He is also credited as the creator of some life-size bronze statues known only from later copies whose identification is controversial, including the ''
Ludovisi Hermes''.
The High Classical style continued to develop realism and sophistication in the human figure, and improved the depiction of drapery (clothes), using it to add to the impact of active poses. Facial expressions were usually very restrained, even in combat scenes. The composition of groups of figures in reliefs and on pediments combined complexity and harmony in a way that had a permanent influence on Western art. Relief could be very high indeed, as in the Parthenon illustration below, where most of the leg of the warrior is completely detached from the background, as were the missing parts; relief this high made sculptures more subject to damage. The Late Classical style developed the free-standing female nude statue, supposedly an innovation of
Praxiteles
Praxiteles (; el, Πραξιτέλης) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attica sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubita ...
, and developed increasingly complex and subtle poses that were interesting when viewed from a number of angles, as well as more expressive faces; both trends were to be taken much further in the Hellenistic period.
=Hellenistic
=
![Fregio della gigantomachia 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Fregio_della_gigantomachia_02.JPG)
The
Hellenistic period
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...
is conventionally dated from the death of
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
in 323 BCE, and ending either with the final conquest of the Greek heartlands by
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
in 146 BCE or with the final defeat of the last remaining successor-state to Alexander's empire after the
Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, which also marks the end of
Republican Rome.
[Alexander The Great and the Hellenistic Age, p. xiii. Green P. .] It is thus much longer than the previous periods, and includes at least two major phases: a "Pergamene" style of experimentation, exuberance and some sentimentality and vulgarity, and in the 2nd century BCE a classicising return to a more austere simplicity and elegance; beyond such generalizations dating is typically very uncertain, especially when only later copies are known, as is usually the case. The initial Pergamene style was not especially associated with
Pergamon, from which it takes its name, but the very wealthy kings of that state were among the first to collect and also copy Classical sculpture, and also commissioned much new work, including the famous
Pergamon Altar
The Pergamon Altar () was a monumental construction built during the reign of the Ancient Greek King Eumenes II in the first half of the 2nd century BC on one of the terraces of the acropolis of Pergamon in Anatolia, Asia Minor.
The structure wa ...
whose sculpture is now mostly in Berlin and which exemplifies the new style, as do the
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus or Tomb of Mausolus ( grc, Μαυσωλεῖον τῆς Ἁλικαρνασσοῦ; tr, Halikarnas Mozolesi) was a tomb built between 353 and 350 BC in Halicarnassus (present Bodrum, Turkey) for Mausolus, an ...
(another of the Seven Wonders), the famous ''
Laocoön and his Sons'' in the
Vatican Museums
The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...
, a late example, and the bronze original of ''
The Dying Gaul
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' (illustrated at top), which we know was part of a group actually commissioned for Pergamon in about 228 BCE, from which the
Ludovisi Gaul was also a copy. The group called the
Farnese Bull
The ''Farnese Bull'' ( it, Toro Farnese), formerly in the Farnese collection in Rome, is a massive Roman elaborated copy of a Hellenistic sculpture. It is the largest single sculpture yet recovered from antiquity. Along with the rest of the Fa ...
, possibly a 2nd-century marble original, is still larger and more complex,
![Tanagra o corinto, figura di donna seduta, 325-150 ac ca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Tanagra_o_corinto%2C_figura_di_donna_seduta%2C_325-150_ac_ca._11.JPG)
Hellenistic sculpture greatly expanded the range of subjects represented, partly as a result of greater general prosperity, and the emergence of a very wealthy class who had large houses decorated with sculpture, although we know that some examples of subjects that seem best suited to the home, such as children with animals, were in fact placed in temples or other public places. For a much more popular home decoration market there were
Tanagra figurine
The Tanagra figurines were a mold-cast type of Greek terracotta figurines produced from the later fourth century BC, named after the Boeotian town of Tanagra, where many were excavated and which has given its name to the whole class. However, the ...
s, and those from other centres where small pottery figures were produced on an industrial scale, some religious but others showing animals and elegantly dressed ladies. Sculptors became more technically skilled in representing facial expressions conveying a wide variety of emotions and the portraiture of individuals, as well representing different ages and races. The reliefs from the Mausoleum are rather atypical in that respect; most work was free-standing, and group compositions with several figures to be seen in the round, like the ''Laocoon'' and the Pergamon group celebrating victory over the Gauls became popular, having been rare before. The
Barberini Faun, showing a
satyr
In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, :wikt:σάτυρος, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, :wikt:Σειληνός, σειληνός ), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears ...
sprawled asleep, presumably after drink, is an example of the moral relaxation of the period, and the readiness to create large and expensive sculptures of subjects that fall short of the heroic.
After the conquests of Alexander
Hellenistic culture
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
was dominant in the courts of most of the Near East, and some of
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
, and increasingly being adopted by European elites, especially in Italy, where
Greek colonies
Greek colonization was an organised colonial expansion by the Archaic Greeks into the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea in the period of the 8th–6th centuries BC.
This colonization differed from the migrations of the Greek Dark Ages in that it ...
initially controlled most of the South. Hellenistic art, and artists, spread very widely, and was especially influential in the expanding Roman Republic and when it encountered Buddhism in the easternmost extensions of the Hellenistic area. The massive so-called
Alexander Sarcophagus found in
Sidon
Sidon ( ; he, צִידוֹן, ''Ṣīḏōn'') known locally as Sayda or Saida ( ar, صيدا ''Ṣaydā''), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. ...
in modern Lebanon, was probably made there at the start of the period by expatriate Greek artists for a Hellenized Persian governor. The wealth of the period led to a greatly increased production of luxury forms of small sculpture, including
engraved gems and cameos, jewellery, and gold and silverware.
File:Reggio calabria museo nazionale bronzi di riace.jpg, The Riace Bronzes
The ''Riace bronzes'' (Italian: ''Bronzi di Riace'', ), also called the Riace Warriors, are two full-size Greek bronzes of naked bearded warriors, cast about 460–450 BC that were found in the sea in 1972 near Riace, Calabria, in southern It ...
, very rare bronze figures recovered from the sea, c. 460–430
File:Hermes and the infant Dionysus by Praxiteles.jpg, ''Hermes and the Infant Dionysos
''Hermes and the Infant Dionysus'', also known as the ''Hermes of Praxiteles'' or the ''Hermes of Olympia'' is an ancient Greek sculpture of Hermes and the infant Dionysus discovered in 1877 in the ruins of the Temple of Hera, Olympia, in Greece. ...
'', possibly an original by Praxiteles
Praxiteles (; el, Πραξιτέλης) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attica sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubita ...
, 4th century
File:Italia del sud, due statuette femminili dolenti, 350-300 ac. ca.JPG, Two elegant ladies, pottery figurines, 350–300
File:Bronze statuette of a horse MET DP120125.jpg, ''Bronze Statuette of a Horse,'' late 2nd – 1st century BCE Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
File:Nike of Samothrake Louvre Ma2369 n4.jpg, ''The Winged Victory of Samothrace'', c. 190 BCE, Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
File:Venus de Milo Louvre Ma399 n4.jpg, '' Venus de Milo'', c. 130–100 BCE, Greek, the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
File:Laocoon Pio-Clementino Inv1059-1064-1067.jpg, '' Laocoön and his Sons'', Greek, (Late Hellenistic
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
), perhaps a copy, between 200 BCE and 20 CE, white marble, Vatican Museum
The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...
File:0 Apollon du Belvédère - Cortile Ottagono - Museo Pio-Clementino - Vatican (2).JPG, Leochares
Leochares () was a Greek sculptor from Athens, who lived in the 4th century BC.
Works
Leochares worked at the construction of the Mausoleum of Mausolos at Halicarnassus, one of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World". The ''Diana of Versaille ...
, '' Apollo Belvedere'', c. 130–140 CE. Roman copy after a Greek bronze original of 330–320 BCE. Vatican Museums
Europe after the Greeks
=Roman sculpture
=
![26 colonna traiana da estt 05](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/26_colonna_traiana_da_estt_05.jpg)
Early Roman art was influenced by the art of Greece and that of the neighbouring
Etruscans
The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rou ...
, themselves greatly influenced by their Greek trading partners. An Etruscan speciality was near life size tomb effigies in
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
, usually lying on top of a
sarcophagus
A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...
lid propped up on one elbow in the pose of a diner in that period. As the expanding
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...
began to conquer Greek territory, at first in Southern Italy and then the entire Hellenistic world except for the
Parthian Parthian may be:
Historical
* A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran
* Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD)
* Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language
* Parthian shot, an archery skill famously employed by ...
far east, official and
patrician sculpture became largely an extension of the Hellenistic style, from which specifically Roman elements are hard to disentangle, especially as so much Greek sculpture survives only in copies of the Roman period. By the 2nd century BCE, "most of the sculptors working at Rome" were Greek, often enslaved in conquests such as that of
Corinth
Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part o ...
(146 BCE), and sculptors continued to be mostly Greeks, often slaves, whose names are very rarely recorded. Vast numbers of Greek statues were imported to Rome, whether as booty or the result of extortion or commerce, and temples were often decorated with re-used Greek works.
A native Italian style can be seen in the tomb monuments, which very often featured portrait busts, of prosperous middle-class Romans, and
portraiture
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...
is arguably the main strength of Roman sculpture. There are no survivals from the tradition of masks of ancestors that were worn in processions at the funerals of the great families and otherwise displayed in the home, but many of the busts that survive must represent ancestral figures, perhaps from the large family tombs like the
Tomb of the Scipios
The Tomb of the Scipios ( la, sepulcrum Scipionum), also called the , was the common tomb of the patrician Scipio family during the Roman Republic for interments between the early 3rd century BC and the early 1st century AD. Then it was abandoned ...
or the later mausolea outside the city. The famous bronze head supposedly of
Lucius Junius Brutus
Lucius Junius Brutus ( 6th century BC) was the semi-legendary founder of the Roman Republic, and traditionally one of its first consuls in 509 BC. He was reputedly responsible for the expulsion of his uncle the Roman king Tarquinius Superbus after ...
is very variously dated, but taken as a very rare survival of Italic style under the Republic, in the preferred medium of bronze. Similarly stern and forceful heads are seen on coins of the Late Republic, and in the Imperial period coins as well as busts sent around the Empire to be placed in the
basilica
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...
s of provincial cities were the main visual form of imperial propaganda; even
Londinium
Londinium, also known as Roman London, was the capital of Roman Britain during most of the period of Roman rule. It was originally a settlement established on the current site of the City of London around AD 47–50. It sat at a key cross ...
had a near-colossal statue of
Nero
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...
, though far smaller than the 30-metre-high
Colossus of Nero in Rome, now lost.
![Ara Pacis Relief Pax](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Ara_Pacis_Relief_Pax.jpg)
The Romans did not generally attempt to compete with free-standing Greek works of heroic exploits from history or mythology, but from early on produced historical works in relief, culminating in the great
Roman triumphal column
A victory column, or monumental column or triumphal column, is a monument in the form of a column, erected in memory of a victorious battle, war, or revolution. The column typically stands on a base and is crowned with a victory symbol, such as a ...
s with continuous narrative reliefs winding around them, of which those commemorating
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...
(CE 113) and
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...
(by 193) survive in Rome, where the
Ara Pacis ("Altar of Peace", 13 BCE) represents the official Greco-Roman style at its most classical and refined. Among other major examples are the earlier re-used reliefs on the
Arch of Constantine
The Arch of Constantine ( it, Arco di Costantino) is a triumphal arch in Rome dedicated to the emperor Constantine the Great. The arch was commissioned by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvi ...
and the base of the
Column of Antoninus Pius (161),
Campana relief
Campana reliefs (also Campana tiles) are Ancient Roman terracotta reliefs made from the middle of the first century BC until the first half of the second century AD. They are named after the Italian collector Giampietro Campana, who first published ...
s were cheaper pottery versions of marble reliefs and the taste for relief was from the imperial period expanded to the sarcophagus. All forms of luxury small sculpture continued to be patronized, and quality could be extremely high, as in the silver
Warren Cup, glass
Lycurgus Cup, and large cameos like the
Gemma Augustea
The ''Gemma Augustea'' (Latin, ''Gem of Augustus'') is an ancient Roman low-relief cameo engraved gem cut from a double-layered Arabian onyx stone. It is commonly agreed that the gem cutter who created it was either Dioscurides or one of his discip ...
,
Gonzaga Cameo
The Gonzaga Cameo is a Hellenistic engraved gem; a cameo of the ''capita jugata'' variety cut out from the three layers of an Indian sardonyx, dating from perhaps the 3rd century BC. and the "
Great Cameo of France". For a much wider section of the population, moulded relief decoration of
pottery vessels and small figurines were produced in great quantity and often considerable quality.
After moving through a late 2nd-century "baroque" phase, in the 3rd century, Roman art largely abandoned, or simply became unable to produce, sculpture in the classical tradition, a change whose causes remain much discussed. Even the most important imperial monuments now showed stumpy, large-eyed figures in a harsh frontal style, in simple compositions emphasizing power at the expense of grace. The contrast is famously illustrated in the
Arch of Constantine
The Arch of Constantine ( it, Arco di Costantino) is a triumphal arch in Rome dedicated to the emperor Constantine the Great. The arch was commissioned by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvi ...
of 315 in Rome, which combines sections in the new style with
roundel
A roundel is a circular disc used as a symbol. The term is used in heraldry, but also commonly used to refer to a type of national insignia used on military aircraft, generally circular in shape and usually comprising concentric rings of differ ...
s in the earlier full Greco-Roman style taken from elsewhere, and the ''
Four Tetrarchs'' (c. 305) from the new capital of
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
, now in Venice.
Ernst Kitzinger
Ernst Kitzinger (December 27, 1912 – January 22, 2003) was a German- American historian of late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine art.
Biography
Kitzinger was born into a well-educated Jewish family in Munich; his father, Wilhelm Nathan ...
found in both monuments the same "stubby proportions, angular movements, an ordering of parts through symmetry and repetition and a rendering of features and drapery folds through incisions rather than modelling... The hallmark of the style wherever it appears consists of an emphatic hardness, heaviness and angularity—in short, an almost complete rejection of the classical tradition".
This revolution in style shortly preceded the period in which
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
was adopted by the Roman state and the great majority of the people, leading to the end of large religious sculpture, with large statues now only used for emperors. However, rich Christians continued to commission reliefs for sarcophagi, as in the
Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus
The Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus is a marble Early Christian sarcophagus used for the burial of Junius Bassus, who died in 359. It has been described as "probably the single most famous piece of early Christian relief sculpture." The sarcopha ...
, and very small sculpture, especially in ivory, was continued by Christians, building on the style of the
consular diptych.
File:Museo archeologico di Firenze, coperchio di sepolcro muliebre da Tuscania, terracotta con tracce di policromia III sec. d.c.JPG, Etruscan __NOTOC__
Etruscan may refer to:
Ancient civilization
*The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy
*Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization
**Etruscan architecture
**Etruscan art
**Etruscan cities
**Etruscan ...
sarcophagus
A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...
, 3rd century BCE
File:Capitoline Brutus Musei Capitolini MC1183 02.jpg, The " Capitoline Brutus", dated to the 3rd or 1st century BCE
File:Statue-Augustus.jpg, '' Augustus of Prima Porta'', statue of the emperor Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
, 1st century CE. Vatican Museums
The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...
File:Tomba dei decii, dalla via ostiense, 98-117 dc..JPG, Tomb relief of the Decii, 98–117 CE
File:Claudius Pio-Clementino Inv243.jpg, Bust of Emperor Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor a ...
, c. 50 CE, (reworked from a bust of emperor Caligula
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula (), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the popular Roman general Germanicu ...
), It was found in the so-called Otricoli basilica in Lanuvium, Italy, Vatican Museums
The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...
File:COMMODE HERCULE.jpg, Commodus
Commodus (; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman emperor who ruled from 177 to 192. He served jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until the latter's death in 180, and thereafter he reigned alone until his assassination. ...
dressed as Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Gr ...
, c. 191 CE, in the late imperial "baroque" style
File:Venice – The Tetrarchs 03.jpg, '' The Four Tetrarchs'', c. 305, showing the new anti-classical style, in porphyry, now San Marco, Venice
The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark ( it, Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco), commonly known as St Mark's Basilica ( it, Basilica di San Marco; vec, Baxéłega de San Marco), is the cathedral church of the Catholic Chu ...
File:Great Cameo of France CdM Paris Bab264 white background.jpg, The cameo gem known as the " Great Cameo of France", c. 23 CE, with an allegory
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...
of Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
and his family
=Early Medieval and Byzantine
=
![Gerokreuz full 20050903](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Gerokreuz_full_20050903.jpg)
The
Early Christian
Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish d ...
s were opposed to monumental religious sculpture, though continuing Roman traditions in portrait busts and
sarcophagus
A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...
reliefs, as well as smaller objects such as the consular diptych. Such objects, often in valuable materials, were also the main sculptural traditions (as far as is known) of the
barbaric civilization
The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...
s of the
Migration period
The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...
, as seen in the objects found in the 6th-century burial treasure at
Sutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo is the site of two early medieval cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near the English town of Woodbridge. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when a previously undisturbed ship burial containing a ...
, and the jewellery of
Scythian art and the hybrid Christian and
animal style
Animal style art is an approach to decoration found from China to Northern Europe in the early Iron Age, and the barbarian art of the Migration Period, characterized by its emphasis on animal motifs. The zoomorphic style of decoration was used ...
productions of
Insular art
Insular art, also known as Hiberno-Saxon art, was produced in the post-Roman era of Great Britain and Ireland. The term derives from ''insula'', the Latin term for "island"; in this period Britain and Ireland shared a largely common style dif ...
. Following the continuing Byzantine tradition,
Carolingian art
Carolingian art comes from the Frankish Empire in the period of roughly 120 years from about 780 to 900—during the reign of Charlemagne and his immediate heirs—popularly known as the Carolingian Renaissance. The art was produced by and for the ...
revived ivory carving, often in panels for the
treasure bindings of grand
illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...
s, as well as
crozier
A crosier or crozier (also known as a paterissa, pastoral staff, or bishop's staff) is a stylized staff that is a symbol of the governing office of a bishop or abbot and is carried by high-ranking prelates of Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholi ...
heads and other small fittings.
Byzantine art
Byzantine art comprises the body of Christian Greek artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the decline of Rome and lasted ...
, though producing superb ivory reliefs and architectural decorative carving, never returned to monumental sculpture, or even much small sculpture in the round. However, in the West during the
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...
and
Ottonian periods there was the beginnings of a production of monumental statues, in courts and major churches. This gradually spread; by the late 10th and 11th century there are records of several apparently life-size sculptures in
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
churches, probably of precious metal around a wooden frame, like the
Golden Madonna of Essen
The Golden Madonna of Essen is a sculpture of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. It is a wooden core covered with sheets of thin gold leaf. The piece is part of the treasury of Essen Cathedral, formerly the church of Essen Abbey, in North Rhi ...
. No Anglo-Saxon example has survived, and survivals of large non-architectural sculpture from before 1,000 are exceptionally rare. Much the finest is the
Gero Cross, of 965–970, which is a
crucifix
A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...
, which was evidently the commonest type of sculpture;
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
had set one up in the
Palatine Chapel in Aachen
The Palatine Chapel in Aachen is an early medieval chapel and remaining component of Charlemagne's Palace of Aachen in what is now Germany. Although the palace itself no longer exists, the chapel was preserved and now forms the central part of A ...
around 800. These continued to grow in popularity, especially in Germany and Italy. The
runestone
A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but most of the runestones da ...
s of the
Nordic world, the
Pictish stones of Scotland and possibly the
high cross
A high cross or standing cross ( ga, cros ard / ardchros, gd, crois àrd / àrd-chrois, cy, croes uchel / croes eglwysig) is a free-standing Christian cross made of stone and often richly decorated. There was a unique Early Medieval traditi ...
reliefs of Christian Great Britain, were northern sculptural traditions that bridged the period of Christianization.
File:Byzantine ivory 801.jpg, '' Archangel Ivory'', 525–550, Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
File:Saint Remigius binding Medieval Picardie Museum.jpg, Late Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...
ivory panel, probably meant for a book-cover
File:Triptych Harbaville Louvre OA3247 recto.jpg, The Harbaville Triptych, Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
ivory, mid-10th century
=Romanesque
=
From about 1000 there was a general rebirth of artistic production in all Europe, led by general economic growth in production and commerce, and the new style of
Romanesque art
Romanesque art is the art of Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic Art, Gothic style in the 12th century, or later depending on region. The preceding period is known as the Pre-Romanesque period. The term was invented by 1 ...
was the first medieval style to be used in the whole of Western Europe. The new cathedrals and pilgrim's churches were increasingly decorated with architectural stone reliefs, and new focuses for sculpture developed, such as the
tympanum over church doors in the 12th century, and the inhabited
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
with figures and often narrative scenes. Outstanding abbey churches with sculpture include in France
Vézelay
Vézelay () is a commune in the department of Yonne in the north-central French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is a defensible hill town famous for Vézelay Abbey. The town and its 11th-century Romanesque Basilica of St Magdalene are de ...
and
Moissac and in Spain
Silos.
Romanesque art was characterised by a very vigorous style in both sculpture and painting. The capitals of columns were never more exciting than in this period, when they were often carved with complete scenes with several figures. The large wooden
crucifix
A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...
was a German innovation right at the start of the period, as were free-standing statues of the enthroned Madonna, but the
high relief was above all the sculptural mode of the period. Compositions usually had little depth, and needed to be flexible to squeeze themselves into the shapes of capitals, and church typanums; the tension between a tightly enclosing frame, from which the composition sometimes escapes, is a recurrent theme in Romanesque art. Figures still often varied in size in relation to their importance portraiture hardly existed.
Objects in precious materials such as ivory and metal had a very high status in the period, much more so than monumental sculpture — we know the names of more makers of these than painters, illuminators or architect-masons. Metalwork, including decoration in
enamel, became very sophisticated, and many spectacular shrines made to hold relics have survived, of which the best known is the
Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral
The Shrine of the Three Kings (German language, German ''Dreikönigsschrein'' or ''Der Dreikönigenschrein''), Tomb of the Three Kings, or Tomb of the Three Magi is a reliquary traditionally believed to contain the bones of the Biblical Magi, als ...
by
Nicholas of Verdun
Nicholas of Verdun (c. 1130 – c. 1205) was a renowned metalworker, goldsmith and enamellist active around the years 1180–1205. He was born in the city of Verdun, Upper Lorraine. The region extending from the valley of the Rhine and Meuse riv ...
. The bronze
Gloucester candlestick and the
brass font of 1108–17 now in Liège are superb examples, very different in style, of metal casting, the former highly intricate and energetic, drawing on manuscript painting, while the font shows the Mosan style at its most classical and majestic. The bronze doors, a triumphal column and other fittings at
Hildesheim Cathedral
Hildesheim Cathedral (German: '), officially the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary (German: ''Hohe Domkirche St. Mariä Himmelfahrt'') or simply St. Mary's Cathedral (German: ''Mariendom''), is a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral in the city cent ...
, the
Gniezno Doors
The Gniezno Doors ( pl, Drzwi Gnieźnieńskie, la, Porta Regia) are a pair of bronze doors placed at the entrance to Gniezno Cathedral in Gniezno, Poland. They are decorated with eighteen bas-relief scenes from the life of St. Adalbert (in Poli ...
, and the doors of the
Basilica di San Zeno in
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
are other substantial survivals. The
aquamanile
In modern usage, an aquamanile (plural aquamanilia or simply aquamaniles) is a ewer or jug-type vessel in the form of one or more animal or human figures. It usually contained water for the washing of hands (''aqua'' + ''manos'') over a basin, w ...
, a container for water to wash with, appears to have been introduced to Europe in the 11th century, and often took fantastic
zoomorphic forms; surviving examples are mostly in brass. Many wax impressions from impressive seals survive on charters and documents, although Romanesque coins are generally not of great aesthetic interest.
The
Cloisters Cross
The Cloisters Cross (also known as the Bury St Edmunds Cross), is a complex 12th-century ivory Romanesque altar cross or processional cross. It is named after The Cloisters, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which acquired it in ...
is an unusually large
ivory crucifix
A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...
, with complex carving including many figures of
prophet
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...
s and others, which has been attributed to one of the relatively few artists whose name is known,
Master Hugo
Master Hugo (fl. c.1130-c.1150) was a Romanesque lay artist and the earliest recorded professional artist in England.
His documented career at Bury St Edmunds Abbey spans from before 1136 to after 1148. He is most famous for illuminating the fi ...
, who also illuminated manuscripts. Like many pieces it was originally partly coloured. The
Lewis chessmen
The Lewis chessmen ( no, Lewisbrikkene; gd, Fir-Tàilisg; sco, Lewis chesmen) or Uig chessmen, named after the island or the bay where they were found, are a group of distinctive 12th-century chess pieces, along with other game pieces, most o ...
are well-preserved examples of small ivories, of which many pieces or fragments remain from
crozier
A crosier or crozier (also known as a paterissa, pastoral staff, or bishop's staff) is a stylized staff that is a symbol of the governing office of a bishop or abbot and is carried by high-ranking prelates of Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholi ...
s, plaques,
pectoral crosses and similar objects.
File:Renier de Huy JPG0.jpg, Baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège
The baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège is a Romanesque brass or bronze baptismal font made between 1107 and 1118 now in St Bartholomew's Church, Liège in Liège, Belgium. The font is a major masterpiece of Mosan art, remarkable ...
, '' Baptism of Christ'', 1107–1118
File:02 Basilique Ste-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay - Tympan.jpg, The tympanum of Vézelay Abbey, Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
, France, 1130s
File:Cathedral of Ourense (Spain).jpg, ''Facade,'' Cathedral of Ourense
Ourense (; es, Orense ) is a city and capital of the province of Ourense, located in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, northwestern Spain. It is on the Camino Sanabrés path of the Way of St ...
1160, Spain
File:Apóstoles del Pórtico de la Gloria.jpg, ''Pórtico da Gloria'', Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain, c. 12th–13th centuries
= Gothic
=
![Vierge a l'Enfant debout](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Vierge_a_l%27Enfant_debout.jpg)
The Gothic period is essentially defined by
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It e ...
, and does not entirely fit with the development of style in sculpture in either its start or finish. The facades of large churches, especially around doors, continued to have large typanums, but also rows of sculpted figures spreading around them. The statues on the Western (Royal) Portal at
Chartres Cathedral (c. 1145) show an elegant but exaggerated columnar elongation, but those on the south
transept
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...
portal, from 1215 to 1220, show a more naturalistic style and increasing detachment from the wall behind, and some awareness of the classical tradition. These trends were continued in the west portal at
Reims Cathedral of a few years later, where the figures are almost in the round, as became usual as Gothic spread across Europe.
In Italy
Nicola Pisano (1258–1278) and his son
Giovanni Giovanni may refer to:
* Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname
* Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data
* ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...
developed a style that is often called
Proto-Renaissance, with unmistakable influence from Roman sarcophagi and sophisticated and crowded compositions, including a sympathetic handling of nudity, in relief panels on their
pulpit of Siena Cathedral (1265–68), the
Fontana Maggiore
The ''Fontana Maggiore'', a masterpiece of medieval sculpture, placed in the centre of Piazza IV Novembre (formerly Piazza Grande), is the monument symbol of the city of Perugia.
History
The monumental fountain was designed by Frà Bevignate ...
in
Perugia
Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia.
The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...
, and Giovanni's
pulpit in Pistoia of 1301. Another revival of classical style is seen in the
International Gothic
International Gothic is a period of Gothic art which began in Burgundy, France, and northern Italy in the late 14th and early 15th century. It then spread very widely across Western Europe, hence the name for the period, which was introduced by th ...
work of
Claus Sluter
Claus Sluter (1340s in Haarlem – 1405 or 1406 in Dijon) was a Dutch sculptor, living in the Duchy of Burgundy from about 1380. He was the most important northern European sculptor of his age and is considered a pioneer of the "northern reali ...
and his followers in
Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
and
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...
around 1400. Late Gothic sculpture continued in the North, with a fashion for very large wooden sculpted altarpieces with increasingly virtuoso carving and large numbers agitated expressive figures; most surviving examples are in Germany, after much iconoclasm elsewhere.
Tilman Riemenschneider
Tilman Riemenschneider (c. 1460 – 7 July 1531) was a German sculptor and woodcarver active in Würzburg from 1483. He was one of the most prolific and versatile sculptors of the transition period between late Gothic and Renaissance, a master i ...
,
Veit Stoss and others continued the style well into the 16th century, gradually absorbing Italian Renaissance influences.
Life-size tomb effigies in stone or
alabaster became popular for the wealthy, and grand multi-level tombs evolved, with the
Scaliger Tombs of
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
so large they had to be moved outside the church. By the 15th century there was an industry exporting
Nottingham alabaster
Nottingham alabaster is a term used to refer to the English sculpture industry, mostly of relatively small religious carvings, which flourished from the fourteenth century until the early sixteenth century. Alabaster carvers were at work in Lo ...
altar reliefs in groups of panels over much of Europe for economical parishes who could not afford stone retables. Small carvings, for a mainly lay and often female market, became a considerable industry in Paris and some other centres. Types of ivories included small devotional
polyptychs,
single figures, especially of the Virgin, mirror-cases, combs, and
elaborate caskets with scenes from Romances, used as engagement presents. The very wealthy collected extravagantly elaborate jewelled and enamelled metalwork, both secular and religious, like the
Duc de Berry
Duke of Berry (french: Duc de Berry) or Duchess of Berry (french: Duchesse de Berry) was a title in the Peerage of France. The Duchy of Berry, centred on Bourges, was originally created as an appanage for junior members of the French royal family ...
's
Holy Thorn Reliquary
The Holy Thorn Reliquary was probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry, to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns. The reliquary was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1898 by Ferdinand de Rothschild as part of the Waddesd ...
, until they ran short of money, when they were melted down again for cash.
File:Chartres2006 077.jpg, West portal of Chartres Cathedral (c. 1145)
File:Chartres cathedral 023 martyrs S TTaylor.JPG, South portal of Chartres Cathedral (c. 1215–1220)
File:Reims6.jpg, West portal at Reims Cathedral, Annunciation
The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...
group
File:Pisa.Baptistery.pulpit02.jpg, Nicola Pisano, ''Nativity'' and ''Adoration of the Magi
The Adoration of the Magi or Adoration of the Kings is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, ...
'' from the pulpit of the Pisa Baptistery
The Pisa Baptistery of St. John ( it, Battistero di San Giovanni) is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical building in Pisa, Italy. Construction started in 1152 to replace an older baptistery, and when it was completed in 1363, it became the second bu ...
File:Bamberger Dom-Bamberger Reiter.JPG, The Bamberg Horseman
The Bamberg Horseman (german: Der Bamberger Reiter) is an early 13th-century stone equestrian statue by an anonymous medieval sculptor in the cathedral of Bamberg, Germany.
Description
Dating probably from the time before the consecration of ...
1237, near life-size stone equestrian statue
An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a d ...
, the first of this kind since antiquity
Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to:
Historical objects or periods Artifacts
*Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures
Eras
Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...
.
File:French - Casket with Scenes of Romances - Walters 71264 - Top.jpg, Lid of the Walters Casket, with the ''Siege of the Castle of Love'' at left, and jousting. Paris, 1330–1350
File:Siege castle love Louvre OA6933.jpg, ''Siege of the Castle of Love'' on a mirror-case in the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
, 1350–1370; the ladies are losing.
File:Pietà Naumburg Cathedral 01a.jpg, Central German Pietà
The Pietà (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus after his body was removed from the cross. It is most often found in sculpture. The Pietà is a specific form o ...
, 1330–1340
File:Dijon mosesbrunnen4.jpg, Claus Sluter
Claus Sluter (1340s in Haarlem – 1405 or 1406 in Dijon) was a Dutch sculptor, living in the Duchy of Burgundy from about 1380. He was the most important northern European sculptor of his age and is considered a pioneer of the "northern reali ...
, David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
and a prophet
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...
from the ''Well of Moses''
File:Holy Thorn Reliquary base.jpg, Base of the Holy Thorn Reliquary
The Holy Thorn Reliquary was probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry, to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns. The reliquary was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1898 by Ferdinand de Rothschild as part of the Waddesd ...
, a ''Resurrection of the Dead'' in gold, enamel and gems
File:English - Resurrection - Walters 27308.jpg, Section of a panelled altarpiece with '' Resurrection of Christ'', English, 1450–1490, Nottingham alabaster
Nottingham alabaster is a term used to refer to the English sculpture industry, mostly of relatively small religious carvings, which flourished from the fourteenth century until the early sixteenth century. Alabaster carvers were at work in Lo ...
with remains of colour
File:Rothenburg ob der Tauber 2011 St Jakob 002.JPG, Detail of the Last Supper from Tilman Riemenschneider
Tilman Riemenschneider (c. 1460 – 7 July 1531) was a German sculptor and woodcarver active in Würzburg from 1483. He was one of the most prolific and versatile sculptors of the transition period between late Gothic and Renaissance, a master i ...
's ''Altar of the Holy Blood'', 1501–1505, Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Rothenburg ob der Tauber () is a town in the district of Ansbach of Mittelfranken (Middle Franconia), the Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. It is well known for its well-preserved medieval old town, a destination for tourists from around the w ...
, Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
Renaissance
![Rome-Basilique San Pietro in Vincoli-Moise MichelAnge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Rome-Basilique_San_Pietro_in_Vincoli-Moise_MichelAnge.jpg)
Renaissance sculpture proper is often taken to begin with the famous competition for the doors of the
Florence Baptistry
The Florence Baptistery, also known as the Baptistery of Saint John ( it, Battistero di San Giovanni), is a religious building in Florence, Italy, and has the status of a minor basilica. The octagonal baptistery stands in both the Piazza del D ...
in 1403, from which the trial models submitted by the winner,
Lorenzo Ghiberti
Lorenzo Ghiberti (, , ; 1378 – 1 December 1455), born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence, a key figure in the Early Renaissance, best known as the creator of two sets of bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery ...
, and
Filippo Brunelleschi
Filippo Brunelleschi ( , , also known as Pippo; 1377 – 15 April 1446), considered to be a founding father of Renaissance architecture, was an Italian architect, designer, and sculptor, and is now recognized to be the first modern engineer, p ...
survive. Ghiberti's doors are still in place, but were undoubtedly eclipsed by his second pair for the other entrance, the so-called ''Gates of Paradise'', which took him from 1425 to 1452, and are dazzlingly confident classicizing compositions with varied depths of relief allowing extensive backgrounds. The intervening years had seen Ghiberti's early assistant
Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello ( ), was a Republic of Florence, Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sculpture and use ...
develop with seminal statues including his ''
Davids Davids is an unusual patronymic surname and a variant of Davidis. The name is mostly found in Great Britain and in the Netherlands. Davids is derived from the Hebrew word for "beloved".
The name was popularised by the story of King David, who is r ...
'' in marble (1408–09) and bronze (1440s), and his
Equestrian statue of Gattamelata, as well as reliefs. A leading figure in the later period was
Andrea del Verrocchio
Andrea del Verrocchio (, , ; – 1488), born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni, was a sculptor, Italian painter and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence. He apparently became known as ''Verrocchio'' after the su ...
, best known for his
equestrian statue
An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a d ...
of
Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice; his pupil
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
designed an equine sculpture in 1482 ''
The Horse
"The Horse" is an American instrumental song by Cliff Nobles and Company. It was released as the B-side of the single "Love Is All Right" and is simply an instrumental version of that song.
Background
Although Nobles is the title artist, he doe ...
'' for
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, but only succeeded in making a clay model which was destroyed by French archers in 1499, and his other ambitious sculptural plans were never completed.
The period was marked by a great increase in patronage of sculpture by the state for public art and by the wealthy for their homes; especially in Italy, public sculpture remains a crucial element in the appearance of historic city centres. Church sculpture mostly moved inside just as outside public monuments became common. Portrait sculpture, usually in busts, became popular in Italy around 1450, with the
Neapolitan
Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to:
Geography and history
* Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city
* Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...
Francesco Laurana specializing in young women in meditative poses, while
Antonio Rossellino and others more often depicted knobbly-faced men of affairs, but also young children. The portrait
medal
A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...
invented by
Pisanello
Pisanello (c. 1380/1395c. 1450/1455), born Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattroc ...
also often depicted women; relief
plaquette
A plaquette (, ''small plaque'') is a small low relief sculpture in bronze or other materials. These were popular in the Italian Renaissance and later. They may be commemorative, but especially in the Renaissance and Mannerist periods were oft ...
s were another new small form of sculpture in cast metal.
Michelangelo was an active sculptor from about 1500 to 1520, and his great masterpieces including his ''
David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
'', ''
Pietà
The Pietà (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus after his body was removed from the cross. It is most often found in sculpture. The Pietà is a specific form o ...
'', ''
Moses
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...
'', and pieces for the
Tomb of Pope Julius II
The Tomb of Pope Julius II is a sculptural and architectural ensemble by Michelangelo and his assistants, originally commissioned in 1505 but not completed until 1545 on a much reduced scale. Originally intended for St. Peter's Basilica, the str ...
and
Medici Chapel could not be ignored by subsequent sculptors. His iconic David (1504) has a ''
contrapposto'' pose, borrowed from classical sculpture. It differs from previous representations of the subject in that David is depicted before his battle with Goliath and not after the giant's defeat. Instead of being shown victorious, as Donatello and Verocchio had done, David looks tense and battle ready.
File:Ghiberti-porta.jpg, Lorenzo Ghiberti
Lorenzo Ghiberti (, , ; 1378 – 1 December 1455), born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence, a key figure in the Early Renaissance, best known as the creator of two sets of bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery ...
, panel of the ''Sacrifice of Isaac
The Binding of Isaac ( he, , ), or simply "The Binding" (, ), is a story from Genesis 22 of the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical narrative, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Moriah. As Abraham begins to comply, having bound Isaa ...
'' from the Florence Baptistry
The Florence Baptistery, also known as the Baptistery of Saint John ( it, Battistero di San Giovanni), is a religious building in Florence, Italy, and has the status of a minor basilica. The octagonal baptistery stands in both the Piazza del D ...
doors; oblique view here
File:Cantoria Della Robbia OPA Florence 6.jpg, Luca della Robbia
Luca della Robbia (, also , ; 1399/1400–1482) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence. Della Robbia is noted for his colorful, Tin-glazed pottery, tin-glazed terracotta statuary, a technique which he invented and passed on to his ne ...
, detail of ''Cantoria'', c. 1438, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence
File:Florence - David by Donatello.jpg, Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello ( ), was a Republic of Florence, Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sculpture and use ...
, ''David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
'' c. 1440s, Bargello Museum
The Bargello, also known as the Palazzo del Bargello, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, or Palazzo del Popolo (Palace of the People), was a former barracks and prison, now an art museum, in Florence, Italy.
Terminology
The word ''bargello'' appears ...
, Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
File:Firenze.PalVecchio.Donatello.JPG, Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello ( ), was a Republic of Florence, Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sculpture and use ...
, '' Judith and Holofernes'', c. 1460, Palazzo Vecchio
The Palazzo Vecchio ( "Old Palace") is the City hall, town hall of Florence, Italy. It overlooks the Piazza della Signoria, which holds a copy of Michelangelo's ''David (Michelangelo), David'' statue, and the gallery of statues in the adjacent ...
, Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
File:Francesco Laurana pushkin.jpg, Francesco Laurana, female bust (cast)
File:Verrochioorsanmichelle.jpg, Verrocchio
Andrea del Verrocchio (, , ; – 1488), born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni, was a sculptor, Italian painter and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence. He apparently became known as ''Verrocchio'' after the ...
, ''Doubting Thomas
A doubting Thomas is a skeptic who refuses to believe without direct personal experience — a reference to the Gospel of John's depiction of the Apostle Thomas, who, in John's account, refused to believe the resurrected Jesus had appeared to t ...
'', 1467–1483, Orsanmichele, Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
File:'David' by Michelangelo Fir JBU005 denoised.jpg, Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
, ''David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
'', c. 1504, Galleria dell'Accademia
The Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze, or "Gallery of the Academy of Florence", is an art museum in Florence, Italy. It is best known as the home of Michelangelo's sculpture ''David (Michelangelo), David''. It also has other sculptures by Mic ...
, Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
File:'Dying Slave' Michelangelo JBU001.jpg, Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
, ''Dying Slave
The ''Dying Slave'' is a sculpture by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo. Created between 1513 and 1516, it was to serve with another figure, the ''Rebellious Slave'', at the tomb of Pope Julius II. It is a marble figure 2.15 metres (7' ...
'', c. 1513–1516
Mannerist
![Devries-mercuriocrop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Devries-mercuriocrop.jpg)
As in painting, early Italian
Mannerist sculpture was very largely an attempt to find an original style that would top the achievement of the
High Renaissance, which in sculpture essentially meant Michelangelo, and much of the struggle to achieve this was played out in commissions to fill other places in the
Piazza della Signoria
Piazza della Signoria () is a w-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio. It is the main point of the origin and history of the Florentine Republ ...
in Florence, next to Michelangelo's ''David''.
Baccio Bandinelli
Baccio Bandinelli (also called Bartolommeo Brandini; 12 November 1493 – shortly before 7 February 1560), was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, draughtsman, and painter.
Biography
Bandinelli was the son of a prominent Florentine goldsmith, ...
took over the project of ''
Hercules and Cacus
''Hercules and Cacus'' is an Italian Renaissance sculpture in marble to the right of the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy.
It has a complicated and highly political history, but the finished work is b ...
'' from the master himself, but it was little more popular than it is now, and maliciously compared by
Benvenuto Cellini
Benvenuto Cellini (, ; 3 November 150013 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the ''Cellini Salt Cellar'', the sculpture of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', and his autobiography ...
to "a sack of melons", though it had a long-lasting effect in apparently introducing relief panels on the
pedestal of statues for the first time. Like other works of his, and other Mannerists, it removes far more of the original block than Michelangelo would have done. Cellini's bronze ''
Perseus with the head of Medusa
''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'' is a bronze sculpture made by Benvenuto Cellini in the period 1545–1554. The sculpture stands on a square base which has bronze relief panels depicting the story of Perseus and Andromeda, similar to a p ...
'' is certainly a masterpiece, designed with eight angles of view, another Mannerist characteristic, but is indeed mannered compared to the ''David''s of Michelangelo and Donatello. Originally a goldsmith, his famous gold and enamel
Salt Cellar
A salt cellar (also called a salt, salt-box and a salt pig) is an article of tableware for holding and dispensing salt. In British English, the term is normally used for what in North American English are called salt shakers. Salt cellars can be ...
(1543) was his first sculpture, and shows his talent at its best. As these examples show, the period extended the range of secular subjects for large works beyond portraits, with mythological figures especially favoured; previously these had mostly been found in small works.
Small bronze figures for collector's
cabinets
A cabinet is a body of high-ranking state officials, typically consisting of the executive branch's top leaders. Members of a cabinet are usually called cabinet ministers or secretaries. The function of a cabinet varies: in some countrie ...
, often mythological subjects with nudes, were a popular Renaissance form at which
Giambologna
Giambologna (1529 – 13 August 1608), also known as Jean de Boulogne (French), Jehan Boulongne (Flemish) and Giovanni da Bologna (Italian), was the last significant Italian Renaissance sculptor, with a large workshop producing large and small ...
, originally
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
but based in Florence, excelled in the later part of the century, also creating life-size sculptures, of which two joined the collection in the Piazza della Signoria. He and his followers devised elegant elongated examples of the ''
figura serpentinata
(Italian for ‘ serpentine figure’) is a style in painting and sculpture, intended to make the figure seem more dynamic, that is typical of Mannerism. It is similar, but not identical, to contrapposto, and features figures often in a spiral ...
'', often of two intertwined figures, that were interesting from all angles.
File:Fontainebleau escalier roi.jpg, Stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
overdoor
An "overdoor" (or "Supraporte" as in German, or "sopraporte" as in Italian) is a painting, bas-relief or decorative panel, generally in a horizontal format, that is set, typically within ornamental mouldings, over a door, or was originally intend ...
at Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau (; ) is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the ''arrondissement ...
, probably designed by Primaticcio, who painted the oval inset, 1530s or 1540s
File:Persee-florence.jpg, Benvenuto Cellini
Benvenuto Cellini (, ; 3 November 150013 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the ''Cellini Salt Cellar'', the sculpture of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', and his autobiography ...
, ''Perseus with the head of Medusa
''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'' is a bronze sculpture made by Benvenuto Cellini in the period 1545–1554. The sculpture stands on a square base which has bronze relief panels depicting the story of Perseus and Andromeda, similar to a p ...
'', 1545–1554
File:Samson slaying a philistine.jpg, Giambologna
Giambologna (1529 – 13 August 1608), also known as Jean de Boulogne (French), Jehan Boulongne (Flemish) and Giovanni da Bologna (Italian), was the last significant Italian Renaissance sculptor, with a large workshop producing large and small ...
, '' Samson Slaying a Philistine'', about 1562
File:Giambologna raptodasabina.jpg, Giambologna
Giambologna (1529 – 13 August 1608), also known as Jean de Boulogne (French), Jehan Boulongne (Flemish) and Giovanni da Bologna (Italian), was the last significant Italian Renaissance sculptor, with a large workshop producing large and small ...
, '' Rape of the Sabine Women'', 1583, Florence, Italy, 13' 6" (4.1 m) high, marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...
Baroque and Rococo
![Apollo and Daphne (Bernini)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Apollo_and_Daphne_%28Bernini%29.jpg)
In Baroque sculpture, groups of figures assumed new importance, and there was a dynamic movement and energy of human forms— they spiralled around an empty central vortex, or reached outwards into the surrounding space. Baroque sculpture often had multiple ideal viewing angles, and reflected a general continuation of the Renaissance move away from the relief to sculpture created in the round, and designed to be placed in the middle of a large space—elaborate fountains such as Bernini's
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Rome, 1651), or those in the
Gardens of Versailles
The Gardens of Versailles (french: Jardins du château de Versailles ) occupy part of what was once the ''Domaine royal de Versailles'', the royal demesne of the château of Versailles. Situated to the west of the palace, the gardens cover som ...
were a Baroque speciality. The
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
style was perfectly suited to sculpture, with
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his ...
the dominating figure of the age in works such as ''
The Ecstasy of St Theresa
The ''Ecstasy of Saint Teresa'' (also known as ''Saint Teresa in Ecstasy'' or the ''Transverberation of Saint Teresa''; it, L'Estasi di Santa Teresa or ) is a sculptural group in white marble set in an elevated aedicule in the Cornaro Chapel of ...
'' (1647–1652). Much Baroque sculpture added extra-sculptural elements, for example, concealed lighting, or water fountains, or fused sculpture and architecture to create a transformative experience for the viewer. Artists saw themselves as in the classical tradition, but admired
Hellenistic
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
and later Roman sculpture, rather than that of the more "Classical" periods as they are seen today.
The
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
brought an almost total stop to religious sculpture in much of Northern Europe, and though secular sculpture, especially for portrait busts and
tomb monument
Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs ("empty tombs"), tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and comm ...
s, continued, the
Dutch Golden Age
The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and Dutch art, ...
has no significant sculptural component outside goldsmithing. Partly in direct reaction, sculpture was as prominent in
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
as in the late Middle Ages. Statues of rulers and the nobility became increasingly popular. In the 18th century much sculpture continued on Baroque lines—the
Trevi Fountain was only completed in 1762.
Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
style was better suited to smaller works, and arguably found its ideal sculptural form in
early European porcelain, and interior decorative schemes in wood or plaster such as those in French domestic interiors and
Austrian and Bavarian pilgrimage churches.
File:Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon - Louis XIV 1.jpg, Bust of Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Vers ...
, 1686, by Antoine Coysevox
File:Francesco Mochi Santa Verónica 1629-32 Vaticano.jpg, Saint Veronica by Francesco Mochi (1640), Saint Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal e ...
File:Perseus Andromeda Puget Louvre MR2076.jpg, Pierre Paul Puget
Pierre Paul Puget (16 October 1620 – 2 December 1694) was a French Baroque painter, sculptor, architect and engineer. His sculpture expressed emotion, pathos and drama, setting it apart from the more classical and academic sculpture of the ...
, ''Perseus and Andromeda'', 1715, Musée du Louvre
File:Bustelli Liebesgruppe Der gestörte Schläfer BNM.jpg, Franz Anton Bustelli
Franz Anton Bustelli (12 April 1723 – 18 April 1763) was a Swiss-born German modeller for the Bavarian Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory from 1754 to his death in 1763. He is widely regarded as the finest modeller of porcelain in the Rococo s ...
, Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
Nymphenburg Porcelain group
Neo-Classical
The
Neoclassical style that arrived in the late 18th century gave great emphasis to sculpture.
Jean-Antoine Houdon exemplifies the penetrating portrait sculpture the style could produce, and
Antonio Canova
Antonio Canova (; 1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822) was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists,. his sculpture was inspired by the Baroque and the cl ...
's nudes the idealist aspect of the movement. The Neoclassical period was one of the great ages of public sculpture, though its "classical" prototypes were more likely to be Roman copies of Hellenistic sculptures. In sculpture, the most familiar representatives are the Italian
Antonio Canova
Antonio Canova (; 1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822) was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists,. his sculpture was inspired by the Baroque and the cl ...
, the Englishman
John Flaxman
John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several yea ...
and the Dane
Bertel Thorvaldsen
Bertel Thorvaldsen (; 19 November 1770 – 24 March 1844) was a Danes, Danish and Icelanders, Icelandic Sculpture, sculptor medallist, medalist of international fame, who spent most of his life (1797–1838) in Italy. Thorvaldsen was born in ...
. The European neoclassical manner also took hold in the United States, where its pinnacle occurred somewhat later and is exemplified in the sculptures of
Hiram Powers
Hiram Powers (July 29, 1805 – June 27, 1873) was an American neoclassical sculptor. He was one of the first 19th-century American artists to gain an international reputation, largely based on his famous marble sculpture ''The Greek Slave''.
...
.
File:Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) MET DT2883.jpg, Jean-Antoine Houdon, ''Bust of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
'', 1778, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
File:Jasão e o Velo de ouro - Bertel Thorvaldsen - 1803.jpg, Bertel Thorvaldsen
Bertel Thorvaldsen (; 19 November 1770 – 24 March 1844) was a Danes, Danish and Icelanders, Icelandic Sculpture, sculptor medallist, medalist of international fame, who spent most of his life (1797–1838) in Italy. Thorvaldsen was born in ...
: ''Jason and the Golden Fleece
Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He w ...
'' (1803)
File:Badger church - Jane and Henrietta Browne.jpg, John Flaxman
John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several yea ...
, Memorial in the church at Badger, Shropshire, c. 1780s
File:The Greek Slave.jpg, Hiram Powers
Hiram Powers (July 29, 1805 – June 27, 1873) was an American neoclassical sculptor. He was one of the first 19th-century American artists to gain an international reputation, largely based on his famous marble sculpture ''The Greek Slave''.
...
, 1851, ''The Greek Slave
''The Greek Slave'' is a marble sculpture by the American sculptor Hiram Powers. It was one of the best-known and critically acclaimed American artworks of the nineteenth century, and is among the most popular American sculptures ever. It was the ...
'', Yale University Art Gallery
Asia
Greco-Buddhist sculpture and Asia
Greco-Buddhist art
The Greco-Buddhist art or Gandhara art of the north Indian subcontinent is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between Ancient Greek art and Buddhism. It had mainly evolved in the ancient region of Gandhara.
The s ...
is the artistic manifestation of
Greco-Buddhism
Greco-Buddhism, or Graeco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed between the fourth century BC and the fifth century AD in Gandhara, in present-day north-western Pakistan and parts of nort ...
, a cultural
syncretism
Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in t ...
between the
Classical Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
culture and
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
, which developed over a period of close to 1000 years in Central Asia, between the
conquests of Alexander the Great
The wars of Alexander the Great were a series of conquests that were carried out by Alexander III of Macedon from 336 BC to 323 BC. They began with battles against the Achaemenid Persian Empire, then under the rule of Darius III of Persia. ...
in the 4th century BCE, and the Islamic conquests of the 7th century CE. Greco-Buddhist art is characterized by the strong idealistic realism of Hellenistic art and the first representations of the Buddha in human form, which have helped define the artistic (and particularly, sculptural) canon for Buddhist art throughout the Asian continent up to the present. Though dating is uncertain, it appears that strongly Hellenistic styles lingered in the East for several centuries after they had declined around the Mediterranean, as late as the 5th century CE. Some aspects of Greek art were adopted while others did not spread beyond the Greco-Buddhist area; in particular the standing figure, often with a relaxed pose and one leg flexed, and the flying cupids or victories, who became popular across Asia as
apsara
An apsaras or apsara ( sa, अप्सरा ' lso ' pi, अक्चरा, translit=accharā) is a type of female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hinduism and Buddhist culture. They figure prominently in the sculpture, dance, literat ...
s. Greek foliage decoration was also influential, with Indian versions of the
Corinthian capital
The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order w ...
appearing.
The origins of Greco-Buddhist art are to be found in the Hellenistic
Greco-Bactrian kingdom
The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era Hellenistic Greece, Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Helleni ...
(250–130 BCE), located in today's
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, from which Hellenistic culture radiated into the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
with the establishment of the small
Indo-Greek kingdom (180–10 BCE). Under the
Indo-Greeks and then the
Kushan
The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...
s, the interaction of Greek and Buddhist culture flourished in the area of
Gandhara
Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...
, in today's northern Pakistan, before spreading further into India, influencing the art of
Mathura
Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately north of Agra, and south-east of Delhi; about from the town of Vrindavan, and from Govardhan. ...
, and then the
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
art of the
Gupta empire
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gol ...
, which was to extend to the rest of South-East Asia. The influence of Greco-Buddhist art also spread northward towards
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
, strongly affecting the art of the
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Northwest China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, China." Hydr ...
and the
Dunhuang Caves
The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu p ...
, and ultimately the sculpted figure in China, Korea, and Japan.
File:GandharaDonorFrieze2.JPG, Gandhara frieze with devotees, holding plantain leaves, in purely Hellenistic style, inside Corinthian column
The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...
s, 1st–2nd century CE. Buner, Swat
In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...
, Pakistan. Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
File:WindGod2.JPG, Fragment of the wind god Boreas, Hadda, Afghanistan.
File:Demetrius I MET coin.jpg, Coin of Demetrius I of Bactria, who reigned circa 200–180 BCE and invaded Northern India
File:Bouddha Hadda Guimet 181171.jpg, Stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
Buddha head, once painted, from Hadda, Afghanistan, 3rd–4th centuries
File:PoseidonGandhara.JPG, Gandhara Poseidon
Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ch ...
(Ancient Orient Museum
The is a small private museum in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in artifacts of the ancient Near East and Central Asia. It has a collection of Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, and several works of art pertaining to the art of Palmyra and Persia.
...
)
File:PharroAndArdoxsho.jpg, The Buddhist gods Pancika (left) and Hariti
Hārītī (Sanskrit), also known as , ja, text=鬼子母神, translit=Kishimojin, is both a revered goddess and demon, depending on the Buddhist tradition. She is one of the Twenty-Four Protective Deities of Mahayana Buddhism.
In her positive ...
(right), 3rd century, Gandhara
Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...
File:Taller Buddha of Bamiyan before and after destruction.jpg, Taller Buddha of Bamiyan, c. 547 CE, in 1963 and in 2008 after they were dynamited and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
China
Chinese ritual bronzes from the
Shang
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and f ...
and
Western Zhou Dynasties come from a period of over a thousand years from c. 1500 BCE, and have exerted a continuing influence over
Chinese art. They are cast with complex patterned and
zoomorphic decoration, but avoid the human figure, unlike the huge figures only recently discovered at
Sanxingdui. The spectacular
Terracotta Army
The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE with the purpose of protecting the emperor in ...
was assembled for the tomb of
Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of "king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor ( ...
, the first emperor of a unified China from 221 to 210 BCE, as a grand imperial version of the figures long placed in tombs to enable the deceased to enjoy the same lifestyle in the afterlife as when alive, replacing actual sacrifices of very early periods. Smaller figures in pottery or wood were placed in tombs for many centuries afterwards, reaching a peak of quality in
Tang dynasty tomb figures. The tradition of unusually large pottery figures persisted in China, through Tang
sancai
''Sancai'' ()Vainker, 75 is a versatile type of decoration on Chinese pottery using glazes or slip, predominantly in the three colours of brown (or amber), green, and a creamy off-white. It is particularly associated with the Tang Dynasty (618 ...
tomb figures to later Buddhist statues such as the near life-size set of
Yixian glazed pottery luohans
A set of life-size glazed pottery sculptures of luohans usually assigned to the period of the Liao dynasty (907–1125) was discovered in caves at I Chou (I-chou, Yizhou) in Yi xian or Yi County, Hebei (), south of Beijing, before World War I. ...
and later figures for temples and tombs. These came to replace earlier equivalents in wood.
Native Chinese religions do not usually use cult images of deities, or even represent them, and large religious sculpture is nearly all Buddhist, dating mostly from the 4th to the 14th century, and initially using Greco-Buddhist models arriving via the
Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
. Buddhism is also the context of all large portrait sculpture; in total contrast to some other areas, in medieval China even painted images of the emperor were regarded as private. Imperial tombs have spectacular avenues of approach lined with real and mythological animals on a scale matching Egypt, and smaller versions decorate temples and palaces.
Small Buddhist figures and groups were produced to a very high quality in a range of media, as was relief decoration of all sorts of objects, especially in metalwork and
jade
Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...
. In the earlier periods, large quantities of sculpture were cut from the living rock in pilgrimage cave-complexes, and as outside
rock reliefs
A rock relief or rock-cut relief is a relief sculpture carved on solid or "living rock" such as a cliff, rather than a detached piece of stone. They are a category of rock art, and sometimes found as part of, or in conjunction with, ro ...
. These were mostly originally painted. In notable contrast to
literati
Literati may refer to:
*Intellectuals or those who love, read, and comment on literature
*The scholar-official or ''literati'' of imperial/medieval China
**Literati painting, also known as the southern school of painting, developed by Chinese liter ...
painters, sculptors of all sorts were regarded as artisans and very few names are recorded. From the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
onwards, statuettes of religious and secular figures were produced in
Chinese porcelain and other media, which became an important export.
File:Liu Ding.jpg, A bronze ding
Ding may refer to:
Bronze and ceramics
* Ding (vessel), a bronze or ceramic cauldron used in ancient and early imperial China
* Ding ware, ceramics produced in Dingzhou in medieval China
People
* Ding (surname) (丁), a Chinese surname and lis ...
from late Shang dynasty
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...
(13th century–10th century BCE)
File:Chinese tomb guardian 300 BC.jpg, A tomb guardian usually placed inside the doors of the tomb to protect or guide the soul, Warring States period
The Warring States period () was an era in History of China#Ancient China, ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded ...
, c. 3rd century BCE
File:Soldier Horse.JPG, Lifesize calvalryman from the Terracotta Army
The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE with the purpose of protecting the emperor in ...
, Qin dynasty
The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first Dynasties in Chinese history, dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin (state), ...
, c. 3rd century BCE
File:Gold monster.jpg, Gold stag with eagle's head, and ten further heads in the antlers. An object inspired by the art of the Siberian Altai mountain, possibly Pazyryk Pazyryk may refer to:
*Pazyryk Valley, a valley of Ukok Plateau, Siberia
*The Iron Age Pazyryk burials found there
*The wider Pazyryk culture
The Pazyryk culture (russian: Пазырыкская культура ''Pazyrykskaya'' kul'tura) is ...
, unearthed at the site of Nalinggaotu, Shenmu County
Shenmu () is a county-level city in the north of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Inner Mongolia to the northwest and Shanxi province, across the Yellow River, to the southeast. Under the administration of Yulin City, Shenmu is endowed with pl ...
, near Xi'an
Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by #Name, other names, is the list of capitals in China, capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. A Sub-provincial division#Sub-provincial municipalities, sub-provincial city o ...
, China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Possibly from the "Hun people who lived in the prairie in Northern China". Dated to the 4th-3rd century BCE, or Han Dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
period. Shaanxi History Museum
Shaanxi History Museum, which is located to the northwest of the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in the ancient city Xi'an, in the Shaanxi province of China, is one of the first huge state museums with modern facilities in China and one of the largest. T ...
.
File:Nswag, dinastia han, figurina dipinta di danzatrice.jpg, Tomb figure of dancing girl, Han Dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
(202 BCE—220 CE)
File:CMOC Treasures of Ancient China exhibit - bronze cowrie container.jpg, Bronze cowrie
Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.
The term ''porcelain'' derives from the old Italian term for the cowrie shell (''porcellana'') d ...
container with yak
The domestic yak (''Bos grunniens''), also known as the Tartary ox, grunting ox or hairy cattle, is a species of long-haired domesticated cattle found throughout the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent, the Tibetan Plateau, Kachin Sta ...
s, from the Dian Kingdom (4th century BCE – 109 BCE) tradition of the Western Han
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...
File:Wei-Maitreya.jpg, Northern Wei dynasty Maitreya
Maitreya (Sanskrit: ) or Metteyya (Pali: ), also Maitreya Buddha or Metteyya Buddha, is regarded as the future Buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology. As the 5th and final Buddha of the current kalpa, Maitreya's teachings will be aimed at ...
(386–534)
File:China Pferd und Pferdeknecht Linden-Museum.jpg, Tang dynasty tomb figure
Tang dynasty tomb figures are pottery figures of people and animals made in the Tang dynasty of China (618–906) as grave goods to be placed in tombs. There was a belief that the figures represented would become available for the service of the ...
in ''sancai
''Sancai'' ()Vainker, 75 is a versatile type of decoration on Chinese pottery using glazes or slip, predominantly in the three colours of brown (or amber), green, and a creamy off-white. It is particularly associated with the Tang Dynasty (618 ...
'' glaze pottery, horse and groom (618–907)
File:Mahayanabuddha.jpg, Seated Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
, Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
c. 650.
File:Song-Bodhisattva1.jpg, A wooden Bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood.
In the Early Buddhist schools ...
from the Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
(960–1279)
File:Chinese - Cup with Dragon Handles - Walters 42250 - Profile.jpg, Chinese jade
Chinese jade refers to the jade mined or carved in China from the Neolithic onward. It is the primary hardstone of Chinese sculpture. Although deep and bright green jadeite is better known in Europe, for most of China's history, jade has come i ...
Cup with Dragon Handles, Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
, 12th century
File:Bodhisattva Guanyin from Nantoyōsō Collection.jpg, Guanyin
Guanyin () is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara ( sa, अवलोकितेश्वर) and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. She ...
Bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood.
In the Early Buddhist schools ...
in ''Blanc de Chine
Dehua porcelain (), more traditionally known in the West as Blanc de Chine (French for "White from China"), is a type of white Chinese porcelain, made at Dehua in the Fujian province. It has been produced from the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) to ...
(Dehua porcelain)'', by He Chaozong, Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
, early 17th century
File:Man blowing conch (Wanli Reign Period).JPG, Blue underglaze statue of a man with his pipe, Jingdezhen porcelain
Jingdezhen porcelain () is Chinese ceramics, Chinese porcelain produced in or near Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province in southern China. Jingdezhen may have produced pottery as early as the sixth century CE, though it is named after the reign name ...
, Ming Wanli period (1573–1620)
File:China - Beijing 12 - lion outside the Tibetan Monastery (134036069).jpg, A Chinese guardian lion
Chinese guardian lions, or imperial guardian lions, are a traditional Chinese architectural ornament, but the origins lie deep in much older Indian Buddhist traditions. Typically made of stone, they are also known as stone lions or shishi (). ...
outside Yonghe Temple
The Yonghe Temple (, "Palace of Peace and Harmony"), also known as the Yonghe Lamasery, or popularly as the Lama Temple, is a temple and monastery of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism located on 12 Yonghegong Street, Dongcheng District, Beij ...
, Beijing, Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
, c. 1694
Japan
![NaraTodaijiDaibutsu0212](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/NaraTodaijiDaibutsu0212.jpg)
Towards the end of the long
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
Jōmon period
The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a c ...
, some
pottery vessels were "flame-rimmed" with extravagant extensions to the rim that can only be called sculptural, and very stylized pottery
dogū figures were produced, many with the characteristic "snow-goggle" eyes. During the Kofun period of the 3rd to 6th century CE,
haniwa
The are terracotta clay figures that were made for ritual use and buried with the dead as funerary objects during the Kofun period (3rd to 6th centuries AD) of the history of Japan. ''Haniwa'' were created according to the ''wazumi'' technique, ...
terracotta figures of humans and animals in a simplistic style were erected outside important tombs. The arrival of Buddhism in the 6th century brought with it sophisticated traditions in sculpture, Chinese styles mediated via Korea. The 7th-century
Hōryū-ji and its contents have survived more intact than any East Asian Buddhist temple of its date, with works including a ''Shaka Trinity'' of 623 in bronze, showing the historical Buddha flanked by two bodhisattvas and also the
Guardian Kings of the Four Directions.
Jōchō
Jōchō (定朝; died 1057 AD), also known as Jōchō Busshi, was a Japanese sculptor of the Heian period. He popularized the ''yosegi'' technique of sculpting a single figure out of many pieces of wood, and he redefined the canon of body propor ...
is said to be one of the greatest Buddhist sculptors not only in
Heian period
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...
but also in the history of Buddhist statues in Japan. Jōchō redefined the body shape of Buddha statues by perfecting the technique of "yosegi zukuri" (寄木造り) which is a combination of several woods. The peaceful expression and graceful figure of the Buddha statue that he made completed a Japanese style of sculpture of Buddha statues called "Jōchō yō" (Jōchō style, 定朝様) and determined the style of Japanese Buddhist statues of the later period. His achievement dramatically raised the social status of ''
busshi'' (Buddhist sculptor) in Japan.
In the
Kamakura period
The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...
, the
Minamoto clan established the
Kamakura shogunate
The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459.
The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no Y ...
and the
samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
class virtually ruled Japan for the first time. Jocho's successors, sculptors of the
Kei school of Buddhist statues, created realistic and dynamic statues to suit the tastes of samurai, and Japanese Buddhist sculpture reached its peak.
Unkei,
Kaikei
was a Japanese Busshi (sculptor of Buddha statue) of Kamakura period, known alongside Unkei. Because many busshi of the school have a name including ''kei'' (慶), his school is called ''Kei-ha'' (Kei school). Kaikei being also called Annami-da ...
, and
Tankei
Tankei (湛慶 1173 – June 13, 1256) was a Japanese sculptor of the Kei school, which flourished in the Kamakura period. He was the student of and eldest son of the master sculptor Unkei.
Famous Works
*Statue of ''Sahasrabhuja-arya-avalokiteś ...
were famous, and they made many new Buddha statues at many temples such as
Kofuku-ji, where many Buddha statues had been lost in wars and fires.
Almost all subsequent significant large sculpture in Japan was Buddhist, with some
Shinto
Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...
equivalents, and after Buddhism declined in Japan in the 15th century, monumental sculpture became largely architectural decoration and less significant. However sculptural work in the decorative arts was developed to a remarkable level of technical achievement and refinement in small objects such as
inro and
netsuke in many materials, and metal ' or
Japanese sword mountings. In the 19th century there were export industries of small bronze sculptures of extreme virtuosity, ivory and porcelain figurines, and other types of small sculpture, increasingly emphasizing technical accomplishment.
File:Clevelandart 1984.68.jpg, 'Flame-style' vessel, Neolithic Jōmon period
The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a c ...
; c. 2750 BCE; earthenware with carved and applied decoration; height: 61 cm, diameter: 55.8 cm
File:Dogu Miyagi 1000 BCE 400 BCE.jpg, Dogū with "snow-goggle" eyes, 1000–400 BCE
File:Arte giapponese, nobile haniwa, VI sec.JPG, 6th-century haniwa
The are terracotta clay figures that were made for ritual use and buried with the dead as funerary objects during the Kofun period (3rd to 6th centuries AD) of the history of Japan. ''Haniwa'' were created according to the ''wazumi'' technique, ...
figure
File:Horyu-ji14s3200.jpg, Kongo Rishiki (Guardian Deity) at the Central Gate of Hōryū-ji
File:Jianzhen (Tōshōdai-ji, 2).jpg, Priest Ganjin
Jianzhen (; 688–763), or Ganjin in Japanese, was a Chinese monk who helped to propagate Buddhism in Japan. In the eleven years from 743 to 754, Jianzhen attempted to visit Japan some six times. Ganjin finally came to Japan in the year 753 and ...
(Jianzhen), Nara period
The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...
, 8th century
File:Taishakuten Śakra, Tō-ji.jpg, Taishakuten Śakra, 839, Tō-ji
, also known as is a Shingon Buddhist temple in the Minami-ku ward of Kyoto, Japan.
Founded in 796, it was one of the only three Buddhist temples allowed in the city at the time it became the capital of Japan. As such it has a long history, ho ...
File:Seated Dainichi Nyorai.jpg, Dainichi Nyorai
Vairocana (also Mahāvairocana, sa, वैरोचन) is a cosmic buddha from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Vairocana is often interpreted, in texts like the ''Avatamsaka Sutra'', as the dharmakāya of the historical Gautama Buddha. In East ...
by Unkei, 1176, at Enjō-ji
is a Shingon temple in the northeast of Nara, Japan. A number of its buildings and images have been designated National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties, and its late-Heian period gardens are a Place of Scenic Beauty.
History
...
File:Tsuchiya Yasuchika - Tsuba with a Rabbit Viewing the Autumn Moon - Walters 51163.jpg, Tsuba
Japanese sword mountings are the various housings and associated fittings ('' tosogu'') that hold the blade of a Japanese sword when it is being worn or stored. refers to the ornate mountings of a Japanese sword (e.g. ''katana'') used when the ...
sword fitting with a "Rabbit Viewing the Autumn Moon", bronze, gold and silver, between 1670 and 1744
File:Izumiya Tomotada - Netsuke in the Form of a Dog - Walters 711020 - Three Quarter.jpg, Izumiya Tomotada, netsuke in the form of a dog, late 18th century
File:Eagle, By Suzuki Chokichi Suzuki 鈴木長吉「鷲置物」.jpg, Eagle by Suzuki Chokichi, 1892, Tokyo National Museum
File:Yamada Chözaburö - Wind God - Walters 52158.jpg, Yamada Chōzaburō, ''Wind God'' in repoussé iron, c. 1915
Indian subcontinent
The first known
sculpture in the Indian subcontinent
Sculpture in the Indian subcontinent, partly because of the climate of the Indian subcontinent makes the long-term survival of organic materials difficult, essentially consists of sculpture of stone, metal or terracotta. It is clear there was a gr ...
is from the
Indus Valley civilization
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...
(3300–1700 BCE), found in sites at
Mohenjo-daro and
Harappa
Harappa (; Urdu/ pnb, ) is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, now more often called the Indus Valley Civilisation, is named after the site, which takes its name from a mode ...
in modern-day
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. These include the famous
small bronze female dancer and the so-called
''Priest-king''. However, such figures in bronze and stone are rare and greatly outnumbered by pottery figurines and stone seals, often of animals or deities very finely depicted. After the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization there is little record of sculpture until the Buddhist era, apart from a hoard of copper figures of (somewhat controversially) c. 1500 BCE from
Daimabad
Daimabad is a deserted village and archaeological site on the left bank of the Pravara River, a tributary of the Godavari River in Shrirampur taluka in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra state in India. This site was discovered by B. P. Bopardi ...
. Thus the great tradition of Indian monumental sculpture in stone appears to begin, relative to other cultures, and the development of Indian civilization, relatively late, with the reign of
Asoka from 270 to 232 BCE, and the
Pillars of Ashoka he erected around India, carrying his edicts and topped by famous sculptures of animals, mostly lions, of which six survive. Large amounts of figurative sculpture, mostly in relief, survive from Early Buddhist pilgrimage stupas, above all
Sanchi; these probably developed out of a tradition using wood that also embraced
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
.
[Harle, 26–38.]
The pink sandstone Hindu,
Jain
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...
and Buddhist sculptures of
Mathura
Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately north of Agra, and south-east of Delhi; about from the town of Vrindavan, and from Govardhan. ...
from the 1st to 3rd centuries CE reflected both native Indian traditions and the Western influences received through the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, and effectively established the basis for subsequent Indian religious sculpture.
The style was developed and diffused through most of India under the
Gupta Empire
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gol ...
(c. 320–550) which remains a
"classical" period for Indian sculpture, covering the earlier
Ellora Caves
Ellora is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India. It is one of the largest rock-cut Hindu temple cave complexes in the world, with artwork dating from the period 600–1000 CE., Quote: "These 34 m ...
, though the
Elephanta Caves
The Elephanta Caves are a collection of cave temples predominantly dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. They are on Elephanta Island, or ''Gharapuri'' (literally "the city of caves"), in Mumbai Harbour, east of Mumbai in the Indian state of Mahār ...
are probably slightly later. Later large-scale sculpture remains almost exclusively religious, and generally rather conservative, often reverting to simple frontal standing poses for deities, though the attendant spirits such as apsaras and
yakshi
''Yakshinis'' or ''yakshis'' (यक्षिणी sa, yakṣiṇī or ''yakṣī''; pi, yakkhiṇī or ''yakkhī'') are a class of female nature spirits in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religious mythologies that are different from devas and ...
often have sensuously curving poses. Carving is often highly detailed, with an intricate backing behind the main figure in high relief. The celebrated bronzes of the
Chola
The Chola dynasty was a Tamils, Tamil thalassocratic Tamil Dynasties, empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated ...
dynasty (c. 850–1250) from south India, many designed to be carried in processions, include the iconic form of
Shiva
Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...
as
Nataraja
Nataraja () also known as Adalvallaan () is a depiction of the Hindu god Shiva as the divine cosmic dancer. His dance is called Tandava.''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (2015) The pose and artwork are described in many Hindu texts such as the ''T ...
, with the massive granite carvings of
Mahabalipuram
Mamallapuram, also known as Mahabalipuram, is a town in Chengalpattu district in the southeastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, best known for the UNESCO World Heritage Site of 7th- and 8th-century Hindu Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram. It is o ...
dating from the previous
Pallava
The Pallava dynasty existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a significant portion of the Deccan, also known as Tondaimandalam. The dynasty rose to prominence after the downfall of the Satavahana dynasty, with whom they had formerly served as fe ...
dynasty.
File:Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro.jpg, The "Dancing Girl
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...
" of Mohenjo-daro, 3rd or 2nd millennium BCE (replica)
File:Asokanpillar-crop.jpg, Ashoka Pillar, Vaishali, Bihar
Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
, c. 250 BCE
File:Column, Sanchi.jpg, Stupa
A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation.
In Buddhism, circumamb ...
gateway at Sanchi, c. 100 CE or perhaps earlier, with densely packed reliefs
File:Buddha from Sarnath.jpg, Buddha from Sarnath, 5th–6th century CE
File:Elephanta Caves Trimurti.jpg, The Colossal trimurti
The Trimūrti (; Sanskrit: त्रिमूर्ति ', "three forms" or "trinity") are the trinity of supreme divinity in Hinduism, in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified as a triad of de ...
at the Elephanta Caves
The Elephanta Caves are a collection of cave temples predominantly dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. They are on Elephanta Island, or ''Gharapuri'' (literally "the city of caves"), in Mumbai Harbour, east of Mumbai in the Indian state of Mahār ...
File:Ellora cave16 001.jpg, Rock-cut temples at Ellora
Ellora is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India. It is one of the largest rock-cut Hindu temple cave complexes in the world, with artwork dating from the period 600–1000 CE., Quote: "These 34 m ...
File:Shrine with Four Jinas (Rishabhanatha (Adinatha)), Parshvanatha, Neminatha, and Mahavira) LACMA M.85.55 (1 of 4).jpg, Jain
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...
shrine with Rishabhanatha
Rishabhanatha, also ( sa, ऋषभदेव), Rishabhadeva, or Ikshvaku is the first (Supreme preacher) of Jainism and establisher of Ikshvaku dynasty. He was the first of twenty-four teachers in the present half-cycle of time in Jain c ...
, Parshvanatha
''Parshvanatha'' (), also known as ''Parshva'' () and ''Parasnath'', was the 23rd of 24 ''Tirthankaras'' (supreme preacher of dharma) of Jainism. He is the only Tirthankara who gained the title of ''Kalīkālkalpataru (Kalpavriksha in this "Kal ...
, Neminatha
Neminatha, also known as Nemi and Arishtanemi, is the twenty-second ''tirthankara'' (ford-maker) in Jainism. Along with Mahavira, Parshvanatha and Rishabhanatha, Neminatha is one of the twenty four ''tirthankaras'' who attract the most devo ...
, and Mahavira
Mahavira (Sanskrit: महावीर) also known as Vardhaman, was the 24th ''tirthankara'' (supreme preacher) of Jainism. He was the spiritual successor of the 23rd ''tirthankara'' Parshvanatha. Mahavira was born in the early part of the 6t ...
, 6th century
File:NatarajaMET.JPG, Hindu, Chola
The Chola dynasty was a Tamils, Tamil thalassocratic Tamil Dynasties, empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated ...
period, 1000
File:The Hindu deity Vishnu - Indian Art - Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.jpg, Typical medieval frontal standing statue of Vishnu
Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.
Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...
, 950–1150
File:Khajuraho8.jpg, Khajuraho
Khajuraho () is a city, near Chhatarpur in Chhatarpur district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. One of the most popular tourist destinations in India, Khajuraho has the country's largest group of medieval Hindu and Jain temples, famous f ...
Temple
File:WLA lacma Celestial Nymph ca 1450 Rajasthan.jpg, Marble Sculpture of female yakshi
''Yakshinis'' or ''yakshis'' (यक्षिणी sa, yakṣiṇī or ''yakṣī''; pi, yakkhiṇī or ''yakkhī'') are a class of female nature spirits in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religious mythologies that are different from devas and ...
in typical curving pose, c. 1450, Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
File:Natarajartemple1.jpg, Gopuram
A ''gopuram'' or ''gopura'' ( Tamil: கோபுரம், Malayalam: ഗോപുരം, Kannada: ಗೋಪುರ, Telugu: గోపురం) is a monumental entrance tower, usually ornate, at the entrance of a Hindu temple, in the South I ...
of the Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
, densely packed with rows of painted statues
File:ജലഗന്ധേശ്വരർ ക്ഷേത്രത്തിലെ ദ്വാരപാലകശില്പം.JPG, Sculpture of Guardian at the entrance of the Mandapam of Sri Jalagandeeswarar Temple, Vellore, Tamil Nadu
South-East Asia
![Linteau Musée Guimet 1097 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Linteau_Mus%C3%A9e_Guimet_1097_01.jpg)
The sculpture of the region tends to be characterised by a high degree of ornamentation, as seen in the great monuments of Hindu and Buddhist
Khmer sculpture
Khmer sculpture ( km, ចម្លាក់ខ្មែរ, ) refers to the stone sculpture of the Khmer Empire, which ruled a territory based on modern Cambodia, but rather larger, from the 9th to the 13th century. The most celebrated examples a ...
(9th to 13th centuries) at
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat (; km, អង្គរវត្ត, "City/Capital of Temples") is a temple complex in Cambodia and is the largest religious monument in the world, on a site measuring . Originally constructed as a Hinduism, Hindu temple dedicated ...
and elsewhere, the enormous 9th-century Buddhist complex at
Borobudur in
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
, and the Hindu monuments of
Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
. Both of these include many reliefs as well as figures in the round; Borobudur has 2,672 relief panels, 504 Buddha statues, many semi-concealed in openwork
stupa
A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation.
In Buddhism, circumamb ...
s, and many large guardian figures.
In Thailand and Laos, sculpture was mainly of
Buddha images, often gilded, both large for temples and monasteries, and small figurines for private homes. Traditional sculpture in
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
emerged before the
Bagan period. As elsewhere in the region, most of the wood sculptures of the Bagan and Ava periods have been lost.
Traditional
Anitist sculptures from the Philippines are dominated by Anitist designs mirroring the medium used and the culture involved, while being highlighted by the environments where such sculptures are usually placed on. Christian and Islamic sculptures from the Philippines have different motifs compared to other Christian and Islamic sculptures elsewhere. In later periods Chinese influence predominated in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and more wooden sculpture survives from across the region.
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Reliëf op de Borobudur TMnr 20025652.jpg, Relief sculpture from Borobudur temple, Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
, c. 760–830
File:Borobudur - Buddha Statue - 035 Dhyana Mudra, Amitabha (11679385166).jpg, Vairocana Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
from Borobudur temple, Indonesia, c. 760–830
File:Mindanao Burial Pottery - 32843892691.jpg, One of the Anitist Maitum anthropomorphic pottery
The Maitum anthropomorphic burial jars are earthenware secondary burial vessels discovered in 1991 by the National Museum of the Philippines' archaeological team in Ayub Cave, Barangay Pinol, Maitum, Sarangani Province, Mindanao, Philippines. Th ...
from Sarangani, Philippines c. 5 BC-370 AD
File: Bodhisattava Avalokiteshvara, Chaiya Art พระอวโลกิเตศวรโพธิสัตว์ ศิลปะไชยา 01.jpg , Bronze Avalokiteshvara of Chaiya torso from Chaiya, Southern Thailand, Srivijayan art, c. 8th century
File:Muzium Negara KL67.JPG, Bronze Avalokiteshvara from Bidor, Perak, Malaysia, c. 8th-9th century
File:Filippine, provincia di agusan, immagine hindu, statuetta in oro massiccio, xiii secolo.jpg, The Anitist Agusan image from Agusan del Sur, Philippines, 9th-10th century
File:Cambogia, visnu, dintorni di prasat rup arak, stile din kulen, 800-875 ca. 02.JPG, Vishnu
Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.
Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...
from Prasat Rup Arak, Kulen, Khmer art, Cambodia, c. 800–875
File:Mindanao Bangsamoro Islamic Art - 24556378753.jpg, An Anitist sarimanok sculpture from Lanao, Philippines
File:Jayavarman VII Guimet 90508 2.jpg, Head of Jayavarman VII, Khmer art, Cambodia, c. late 12th century
File:Ananda Temple - Bagan, Myanmar 20130209-03.jpg, Buddha in Ananda Temple, Bagan, Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
, c. 1105
File:Fronton Guimet 240907 3.jpg, Stone bas-relief of apsara
An apsaras or apsara ( sa, अप्सरा ' lso ' pi, अक्चरा, translit=accharā) is a type of female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hinduism and Buddhist culture. They figure prominently in the sculpture, dance, literat ...
s from Bayon temple, Cambodia, c. 1200
File:Prajnaparamita Java Side Detail.JPG, Prajnaparamita Singhasari art, East Java, Indonesia, c. 13th century
File:Buraq sculpture from Mindanao Philippines.jpg, An Islamic sculpture of a buraq, southern Philippines
File:Wat Si Chum in Sukhothai.jpg, Phra Achana, Wat Si Chum, Big Buddha image in Sukhothai (city), Sukhothai, Thailand, c. 14th century
File:Buddhaimage7.JPG, "the Buddha calling the earth to witness", The Buddha's hands are in the ''bhūmisparsa mudrā'' (subduing Māra) position. Ho Phra Kaeo temple, Vientiane, Laos
Islam
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
is Aniconism in Islam, famously aniconic, so the vast majority of sculpture is Arabesque (Islamic art), arabesque decoration in relief or openwork, based on vegetable motifs, but tending to geometrical abstract forms. In the very early Mshatta Facade (740s), now mostly in Berlin, there are animals within the dense arabesques in high relief, and figures of animals and men in mostly low relief are found in conjunction with decoration on many later pieces in various materials, including metalwork, ivory and ceramics.
Figures of animals in the round were often acceptable for works used in private contexts if the object was clearly practical, so medieval Islamic art contains many metal animals that are
aquamanile
In modern usage, an aquamanile (plural aquamanilia or simply aquamaniles) is a ewer or jug-type vessel in the form of one or more animal or human figures. It usually contained water for the washing of hands (''aqua'' + ''manos'') over a basin, w ...
s, incense burners or supporters for fountains, as in the stone lions supporting the famous one in the
Alhambra
The Alhambra (, ; ar, الْحَمْرَاء, Al-Ḥamrāʾ, , ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the ...
, culminating in the largest medieval Islamic animal figure known, the Pisa Griffin. In the same way, luxury
hardstone carving
Hardstone carving is a general term in art history and archaeology for the artistic carving of predominantly semi-precious stones (but also of gemstones), such as jade, rock crystal (clear quartz), agate, onyx, jasper, serpentinite, or carnelian, ...
s such as dagger hilts and cups may be formed as animals, especially in Mughal art. The degree of acceptability of such relaxations of strict Islamic rules varies between periods and regions, with Islamic Spain, Persia and India often leading relaxation, and is typically highest in courtly contexts.
File:Mschatta-Fassade (Pergamonmuseum).jpg, The Mshatta Facade, from a palace near Damascus, 740s
File:Arte islamica, ippogrifo, XI sec 02.JPG, The Pisa Griffin, 107 cm high, probably 11th century
File:Turquoise epigraphic ornament MBA Lyon A1969-333.jpg, Part of a 15th-century ceramic panel from Samarkand with white calligraphy on a blue Arabesque (Islamic art), arabesque background.
File:Dagger horse head Louvre OA7891.jpg, Mughal Empire, Mughal dagger with hilt in jade
Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...
, gold, rubies and emeralds. Blade of damascened steel inlaid with gold.
Africa
![Chiwara Chicago sculpture](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Chiwara_Chicago_sculpture.jpg)
Historically, with the exception of some monumental Egyptian sculpture, most African sculpture was created in wood and other organic materials that have not survived from earlier than a few centuries ago; older pottery figures are found from a number of areas. Traditional African masks, Masks are important elements in the art of many peoples, along with human figures, often highly stylized. There is a vast variety of styles, often varying within the same context of origin depending on the use of the object, but wide regional trends are apparent; sculpture is most common among "groups of settled cultivators in the areas drained by the Niger and Congo rivers" in West Africa.
[Honour & Fleming, 557.] Direct images of deities are relatively infrequent, but masks in particular are or were often made for religious ceremonies; today many are made for tourists as "airport art". African masks were an influence on European Modernism, Modernist art, which was inspired by their lack of concern for naturalistic depiction.
The Nubian Kingdom of Kush in modern Sudan was in close and often hostile contact with Egypt, and produced monumental sculpture mostly derivative of styles to the north. In West Africa, the earliest known sculptures are from the Nok culture which thrived between 500 BCE and 500 CE in modern Nigeria, with clay figures typically with elongated bodies and angular shapes. Later West African cultures developed bronze casting for reliefs to decorate palaces like the famous Benin Bronzes, and very fine naturalistic royal heads from around the Yoruba people, Yoruba town of Ife in terracotta and metal from the 12th–14th centuries. Akan goldweights are a form of small metal sculptures produced over the period 1400–1900, some apparently representing proverbs and so with a narrative element rare in African sculpture, and royal regalia included impressive gold sculptured elements.
Many West African figures are used in religious rituals and are often coated with materials placed on them for ceremonial offerings. The Mandé peoples, Mande-speaking peoples of the same region make pieces of wood with broad, flat surfaces and arms and legs are shaped like cylinders. In Central Africa, however, the main distinguishing characteristics include heart-shaped faces that are curved inward and display patterns of circles and dots.
Populations in the African Great Lakes are not known for their sculpture.
However, one style from the region is pole sculptures, carved in human shapes and decorated with geometric forms, while the tops are carved with figures of animals, people, and various objects. These poles are, then, placed next to graves and are associated with death and the ancestral world. The culture known from Great Zimbabwe left more impressive buildings than sculpture but the eight soapstone Zimbabwe Birds appear to have had a special significance and were mounted on monoliths. Modern Zimbabwean sculptors in soapstone have achieved Sculpture of Zimbabwe, considerable international success. Southern Africa's oldest known clay figures date from 400 to 600 CE and have cylindrical heads with a mixture of human and animal features.
File:Nok sculpture Louvre 70-1998-11-1.jpg, Nok Culture, Nok terracotta, 6th century BCE–6th century CE
File:Ife sculpture Inv.A96-1-4.jpg, Ife head, terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
, probably 12–14th centuries CE
File:Yoruba-bronze-head.jpg, Yoruba people, Yoruba bronze head sculpture, Ife, Nigeria c. 12th century
File:Afrikaabteilung in Ethnological Museum Berlin 29.JPG, Sculpture of a 'Queen Mother' from Benin, 16th century.
File:Queen Mother Pendant Mask- Iyoba MET DP231460.jpg, 16th-century ivory mask from Benin
File:Benin kingdom Louvre A97-4-1.jpg, One of the Benin Bronzes, 16th–18th century, Nigeria.
File:Masque probablement Bobo-Burkina Faso (2).jpg, Mask from Burkina Faso, 19th century
File:Statuette Mambia Nigéria.jpg, Mambila figure, Nigeria
Ethiopia and Eritrea
The creation of sculptures in Ethiopia and Eritrea can be traced back to its ancient past with the kingdoms of Dʿmt and Kingdom of Aksum, Aksum. Christian art was established in Ethiopia with the conversion from Traditional African religions, paganism to Religion in Ethiopia, Christianity in the 4th century CE, during the reign of king Ezana of Axum. Christian imagery decorated churches during the Asksumite period and later eras. For instance, at Lalibela, life-size Christian saints, saints were carved into the Church of Bet Golgotha; by tradition these were made during the reign of the Zagwe dynasty, Zagwe ruler Gebre Mesqel Lalibela in the 12th century, but they were more likely crafted in the 15th century during the Solomonic dynasty.
[Briggs (2015), p. 331.] However, the Church of Saint George, Lalibela, one of several examples of rock cut architecture at Lalibela containing intricate carvings, was built in the 10th–13th centuries as proven by archaeology.
[Sobania (2012), p. 462.]
File:Ancient Figurine, National Museum, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2130296832).jpg, Stone statue from Addi-Galamo, Tigray Province, 6th–5th century BCE
File:Axumite Jar Spout (2822628227).jpg, A jar spout from the early Kingdom of Aksum
File:ET Axum asv2018-01 img37 Stelae Park.jpg, The Obelisk of Axum, 4th century CE
File:Ethiopian - Processional Cross - Walters 542889.jpg, A processional cross, Zagwe dynasty, 12th century
File:Bet Golgotha.jpg, One of the seven life-size Christian saints, saints carved into the wall of the Church of Bet Golgotha, Lalibela, 15th century (traditionally believed to have been made during the reign of Gebre Mesqel Lalibela)
Sudan
In History of Sudan, ancient Sudan, the development of sculpture stretches from the simple pottery of the Kerma culture beginning around 2500 BCE to the monumental statuary and architecture of the Meroitic Empire, Kingdom of Kush, its last phase—the Meroitic period—ending around 350 CE (with its conquest by Ethiopia's Aksum).
[Harkless (2006), p. 174.] Beyond pottery items, the Kerma culture also made furniture that contained sculptures, such as gold cattle hoofs as the legs of beds.
Sculpture during the Kingdom of Kush included full-sized statues (especially of kings and queens), smaller figurines (most commonly depicting royal servants), and reliefs in stone, which were influenced by the contemporary ancient Egyptian sculptural tradition.
File:Dipper National Museum Sudan.jpg, A ceramic jug of the Kerma culture
File:Shabti of King Taharqa.jpg, A shabti of the Nubian King Taharqa, from a Nubian pyramids, pyramid of Nuri, Sudan, Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, 690–664 BCE
File:Anlamani-Statue-CloseUpOfHead MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png, Statue of the Kushite Pharaoh Aspelta, Napata period (c. 620–580 BCE)
File:Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe-114985.jpg, Column and elephant - part of the temple complex in Musawwarat es-Sufra, 3rd century BCE
File:Prince Arikankharer Slaying His Enemies, Meroitic, beginning of first century AD, sandstone - Worcester Art Museum - IMG 7535.JPG, Traces of paint on a relief depicting Prince Arikhankharer smiting his enemies, from the Meroitic period of the Kingdom of Kush, early 1st century CE
File:Amanitore bust.jpg, Relief of a ruler, a Candace of Meroë named Amanitore, Kandake Amanitore, 1st century CE
The Americas
Sculpture in what is now Latin America developed in two separate and distinct areas, Mesoamerica in the north and Peru in the south. In both areas, sculpture was initially of stone, and later of
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
and metal as the civilizations in these areas became more technologically proficient. The Mesoamerican region produced more monumental sculpture, from the massive block-like works of the
Olmec and Toltec cultures, to the superb low
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
s that characterize the Maya civilization, Mayan and Aztec cultures. In the Andean region, sculptures were typically small, but often show superb skill.
Pre-Columbian
File:WLA metmuseum Olmec Baby Figure.jpg, Olmec Baby Figure 1200-900 BCE
File:WLA metmuseum Olmec Jadeite Mask 3.jpg, Olmec Jadeite Mask 1000–600 BCE
File:San Lorenzo Monument 3.jpg, Olmec colossal heads, Olmec Colossal Head No. 3 1200–900 BCE
File:Harvestermountainlord.jpg, La Mojarra Stela 1 2nd century CE
File:Teotihuacán - Chalchiuhtlicue.jpg, Chalchiuhtlicue from Teotihuacán 200–500 CE
File:Teotihuacan mask Branly 70-1999-12-1.jpg, Teotihuacan mask 200–600 CE
File:Teotihuacan-Temple of the Feathered Serpent-3035.jpg, Teotihuacan- Detail of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent 200–250 CE
File:Funerary Urn from Oaxaca.jpg, A funerary art, funerary urn in the shape of a "bat god" or a jaguar, Oaxaca, 300–650 CE
File:Moche portrait ceramic Quai Branly 71.1930.19.162 n2.jpg, Moche portrait vessel with Stirrup spout vessel, stirrup spout, Peru, 100 BCE–700 CE
File:K'inich Janaab Pakal I.jpg, K'inich Janaab Pakal I of Palenque, Maya, 603–683 CE
File:Ahkal Mo' Naab III.jpg, Ahkal Mo' Naab III Of Palenque, 8th century CE
File:Palenque Relief.jpg, Upakal K'inich 8th century CE, Palenque
File:Jaina Island type figure, Art Institute.jpg, Jaina Island type figure (Mayan) 650–800 CE
File:Remojadas - Lachendes Gesicht 1.jpg, Classic Veracruz culture face 600–900 CE
File:Atlante-Tollan-Xicocotitlan-Hidalgo Mexico.JPG, Atlante from Tula (Mesoamerican site), Tula, c. 1000 CE
File:Double Headed Turquoise Serpent.jpg, ''Double-headed serpent'', Turquoise, red and white mosaic on wood, Aztec (possibly) Mixtec, c. 1400–1521,
North America
![St James -Cristo del Rey](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/St_James_-Cristo_del_Rey.jpg)
In North America, wood was sculpted for totem poles, masks, utensils, War canoes and a variety of other uses, with distinct variation between different cultures and regions. The most developed styles are those of the Northwest Coast art, Pacific Northwest Coast, where a group of elaborate and highly stylized formal styles developed forming the basis of a tradition that continues today. In addition to the famous totem poles, painted and carved longhouse, house fronts were complemented by carved posts inside and out, as well as mortuary figures and other items. Among the Inuit of the far north, traditional carving styles in ivory and soapstone are still continued.
The arrival of European Catholic culture readily adapted local skills to the prevailing
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
style, producing enormously elaborate retablos and other mostly church sculptures in a variety of hybrid styles. The most famous of such examples in Canada is the altar area of the Notre-Dame Basilica (Montreal), Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal, Quebec, which was carved by peasant ''habitant'' labourers. Later, artists trained in the Western academic tradition followed European styles until in the late 19th century they began to draw again on indigenous influences, notably in the Mexican baroque grotesque style known as Churrigueresque. Aboriginal peoples also adapted church sculpture in variations on Carpenter Gothic; one famous example is the ''Church of the Holy Cross'' in Skookumchuck Hot Springs, British Columbia.
The history of Sculpture of the United States, sculpture in the United States after Europeans' arrival reflects the country's 18th-century foundation in Roman empire, Roman republican civic values and Protestantism, Protestant Christianity. Compared to areas colonized by the Spanish, sculpture got off to an extremely slow start in the British colonies, with next to no place in churches, and was only given impetus by the need to assert nationality after independence. American sculpture of the mid- to late-19th century was often classical, often romantic, but showed a bent for a dramatic, narrative, almost journalistic realism. Public buildings during the last quarter of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century often provided an architectural setting for sculpture, especially in relief. By the 1930s the International Style (architecture), International Style of architecture and design and art deco characterized by the work of Paul Manship and Lee Lawrie and others became popular. By the 1950s, traditional sculpture education would almost be completely replaced by a Bauhaus-influenced concern for Abstract art, abstract design. Minimalist sculpture replaced the figure in public settings and architects almost completely stopped using sculpture in or on their designs. Modern sculptors (21st century) use both classical and abstract inspired designs. Beginning in the 1980s, there was a swing back toward figurative public sculpture; by 2000, many of the new public pieces in the United States were figurative in design.
File:Mountrushmore.jpg, Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln Borglum, ''Mount Rushmore'', 1927–1941. L–R, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
File:Robert Gould Shaw Memorial - detail.jpg, Robert Gould Shaw Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1884–1897, plaster version
File:Beaumont Tower - Lee Lawrie, sculptor.jpg, Lee Lawrie, ''The Sower'', 1928 Art Deco relief on Beaumont Tower, Michigan State University
File:Lincoln statue, Lincoln Memorial.jpg, Daniel Chester French, ''Abraham Lincoln (French 1920), Abraham Lincoln'' (1920) in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.
File:Tlingit K'alyaan Totem Pole August 2005.jpg, The ''K'alyaan'' Totem Pole of the Tlingit people, Tlingit Kiks.ádi Clan, erected at Sitka National Historical Park to commemorate the lives lost in the 1804 Battle of Sitka
File:The Broncho Buster MET DP361132.jpg, Frederic Remington, ''The Bronco Buster'', 1895, cast 1918. Metropolitan Museum of Art
File:Dancer and Gazelles - Manship.jpg, Paul Manship, ''Dancer and Gazelles'', 1916, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
File:The Scout by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.jpg, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, ''Buffalo Bill - The Scout (statue), Buffalo Bill - The Scout'', 1924, commemorating Buffalo Bill in Cody, Wyoming
Moving toward modern art
19th–early 20th century, early Modernism and continuing realism
File:Jeanne d'Arc François Rude.jpg, François Rude, a Romanticism, Romantic ''Jeanne d' Arc'', 1852, Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
File:Ugolino and His Sons MET DP247545.jpg, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, ''Ugolino and His Sons (Carpeaux), Ugolino and His Sons'', 1857–1860, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
File:Per Hasselberg Snöklockan Rottneros Park.jpg, ''Per Hasselberg, Snowdrop (sculpture), Snöklockan'' (snowdrop), Paris 1881. Copy from 1953 in bronze by C & A Nicci (Rome/Italy) placed in Rottneros Park near Sunne, Sweden, Sunne in Värmland/Sweden.
File:Auguste Rodin-Burghers of Calais (photo).jpg, Auguste Rodin ''The Burghers of Calais'' 1889, Calais, France
File:Eros@Piccadilly.jpg, Alfred Gilbert, the so-called ''Piccadilly Circus#Shaftesbury Memorial and Eros, Eros'', 1893, the world's first aluminium statue, Piccadilly Circus, London
File:Paul Gauguin, 1894, Oviri (Sauvage), partially glazed stoneware, 75 x 19 x 27 cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris.jpg, Paul Gauguin, 1894, ''Oviri (Sauvage)'', partially glazed stoneware, 75 x 19 x 27 cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris
File:Jardín Musée Rodin Pensador 01.JPG, Auguste Rodin, ''The Thinker'', 1902, Musée Rodin, Paris
File:Le Jour et la Nuit par Antoine Bourdelle.JPG, Antoine Bourdelle, ''Day and Night'', marble, 1903, Musée Bourdelle, Paris
File:La Valse.jpg, Camille Claudel, ''The Waltz (Claudel), The Waltz'', 1905 cast of the second version
File:Jan Štursa - Před koupelí.jpg, Jan Štursa, ''Before the Bath,'' 1906, National Gallery in Prague
File:La Nuit by Aristide Maillol, Paris November 2011 001.jpg, Aristide Maillol, ''The Night (La Nuit)'' 1909, Tuileries Garden, Paris
File:La-Pensee.jpg, Robert Wlérick, ''The Thought'' 1933, Morez
![Degas-dancer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Degas-dancer.jpg)
Modern classicism contrasted in many ways with the classical sculpture of the 19th century which was characterized by commitments to naturalism (Antoine-Louis Barye)—the melodramatic (François Rude) sentimentality (Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux)—or a kind of stately grandiosity (Lord Leighton). Several different directions in the classical tradition were taken as the century turned, but the study of the live model and the post-Renaissance tradition was still fundamental to them.
Auguste Rodin was the most renowned European sculptor of the early 20th century. He is often considered a sculptural Impressionist, as are his students including Camille Claudel, and Hugo Rheinhold, attempting to model of a fleeting moment of ordinary life.
Modern classicism showed a lesser interest in naturalism and a greater interest in formal stylization. Greater attention was paid to the rhythms of volumes and spaces—as well as greater attention to the contrasting qualities of surface (open, closed, planar, broken etc.) while less attention was paid to story-telling and convincing details of anatomy or costume. Greater attention was given to psychological effect than to physical realism, and influences from earlier styles worldwide were used.
Early masters of modern classicism included: Aristide Maillol, Alexander Matveyev, Joseph Bernard, Antoine Bourdelle, Georg Kolbe, Libero Andreotti, Gustav Vigeland, Jan Stursa,
Constantin Brâncuși
Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian Sculpture, sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century and a pioneer of ...
. As the century progressed, modern classicism was adopted as the national style of the two great European totalitarian empires: Nazi Germany and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Soviet Russia, who co-opted the work of earlier artists such as Kolbe and Wilhelm Lehmbruck in Germany and Matveyev in Russia. Over the 70 years of the USSR, new generations of sculptors were trained and chosen within their system, and a distinct style, socialist realism, developed, that returned to the 19th century's emphasis on melodrama and naturalism.
Classical training was rooted out of art education in Western Europe (and the Americas) by 1970 and the classical variants of the 20th century were marginalized in the history of modernism. But classicism continued as the foundation of art education in the Soviet academies until 1990, providing a foundation for expressive figurative art throughout eastern Europe and parts of the Middle East. By 2000, the European classical tradition retains a wide appeal to the public but awaits an educational tradition to revive its contemporary development.
Some of the modern classical became either more decorative/art deco (Paul Manship, Jose de Creeft, Carl Milles) or more abstractly stylized or more expressive (and Gothic) (Anton Hanak, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Ernst Barlach, Arturo Martini)—or turned more to the Renaissance (Giacomo Manzù, Venanzo Crocetti) or stayed the same (Charles Despiau, Marcel Gimond).
Modernism
![Gaston lachaise floating figure](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Gaston_lachaise_floating_figure.jpg)
Modernist sculpture movements include Cubist sculpture, Cubism, Geometric abstraction, De Stijl, Suprematism, Constructivism (art), Constructivism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Futurism (art), Futurism, Formalism (art), Formalism, Abstract expressionism, Pop-Art, Minimalism, Land art, and Installation art among others.
![SMITH CUBI VI](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/SMITH_CUBI_VI.JPG)
In the early days of the 20th century,
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
revolutionized the art of sculpture when he began creating his ''constructions'' fashioned by combining disparate objects and materials into one constructed piece of sculpture; the sculptural equivalent of the collage in two-dimensional art. The advent of Surrealism led to things occasionally being described as "sculpture" that would not have been so previously, such as "involuntary sculpture" in several senses, including coulage. In later years Picasso became a prolific pottery, potter, leading, with interest in historic pottery from around the world, to a revival of ceramic art, with figures such as George E. Ohr and subsequently Peter Voulkos, Kenneth Price, and Robert Arneson. Marcel Duchamp originated the use of the "
found object" (French: objet trouvé) or ''readymade'' with pieces such as ''Fountain (Duchamp), Fountain'' (1917).
Similarly, the work of
Constantin Brâncuși
Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian Sculpture, sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century and a pioneer of ...
at the beginning of the century paved the way for later abstract sculpture. In revolt against the naturalism of Rodin and his late-19th-century contemporaries, Brâncuși distilled subjects down to their essences as illustrated by the elegantly refined forms of his ''Bird in Space'' series (1924).
Brâncuși's impact, with his vocabulary of reduction and abstraction, is seen throughout the 1930s and 1940s, and exemplified by artists such as Gaston Lachaise, Sir Jacob Epstein, Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Julio González (sculptor), Julio González, Pablo Serrano, Jacques Lipchitz and by the 1940s abstract sculpture was impacted and expanded by
Alexander Calder, Len Lye, Jean Tinguely, and Frederick Kiesler who were pioneers of Kinetic art.
Modernist sculptors largely missed out on the huge boom in public art resulting from the demand for war memorials for the two World Wars, but from the 1950s the public and commissioning bodies became more comfortable with Modernist sculpture and large public commissions both abstract and figurative became common. Picasso was commissioned to make a
maquette for a huge -high public sculpture, the so-called ''Chicago Picasso'' (1967). His design was ambiguous and somewhat controversial, and what the figure represents is not clear; it could be a bird, a horse, a woman or a totally abstract shape.
During the late 1950s and the 1960s abstract sculptors began experimenting with a wide array of new materials and different approaches to creating their work. Surrealist imagery, anthropomorphic abstraction, new materials and combinations of new energy sources and varied surfaces and objects became characteristic of much new modernist sculpture. Collaborative projects with landscape designers, architects, and landscape architects expanded the outdoor site and contextual integration. Artists such as Isamu Noguchi, David Smith (sculptor), David Smith,
Alexander Calder, Jean Tinguely, Richard Lippold, George Rickey, Louise Bourgeois, Philip Pavia and Louise Nevelson came to characterize the look of modern sculpture.
By the 1960s Abstract expressionism, Geometric abstraction and Minimalism, which reduces sculpture to its most essential and fundamental features, predominated. Some works of the period are: the Cubi works of David Smith, and the welded steel works of Sir Anthony Caro, as well as welded sculpture by a large variety of sculptors, the large-scale work of John Angus Chamberlain, John Chamberlain, and environmental installation scale works by Mark di Suvero. Other Minimalists include Tony Smith (sculptor), Tony Smith, Donald Judd, Robert Morris (artist), Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, Giacomo Benevelli, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Richard Serra, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, and John Safer who added motion and monumentality to the theme of purity of line.
During the 1960s and 1970s figurative sculpture by modernist artists in stylized forms was made by artists such as Leonard Baskin, Ernest Trova, George Segal (artist), George Segal, Marisol Escobar, Paul Thek, Robert Graham (sculptor), Robert Graham in a classic articulated style, and Fernando Botero bringing his painting's 'oversized figures' into monumental sculptures.
Gallery of modernist sculpture
File:André Derain, 1907 (Automne), Nu debout, limestone, 95 x 33 x 17 cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne.jpg, André Derain, ''Nu debout'', 1907, limestone, Musée National d'Art Moderne
File:Henri Matisse, 1908, Figure décorative, bronze.jpg, Henri Matisse, ''Figure décorative'', 1908, bronze
File:Woman's Head MET DT203051.jpg, Amedeo Modigliani, ''Female Head'', 1911–12, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
File:Joseph Csaky, 1911-1912, Deux Femme (Two Women), plaster lost, photo Galerie René Reichard, Frankfurt, 72dpi.jpg, Joseph Csaky, ''Groupe de femmes, Groupe de femmes (Groupe de trois femmes, Groupe de trois personnages)'', 1911–12, plaster, lost
File:Alexander Archipenko, La Vie Familiale, Family Life, 1912.jpg, Alexander Archipenko, ''La Vie Familiale'' (''Family Life''), 1912, destroyed
File:Constantin Brancusi, Portrait of Mlle Pogany, 1912, Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia.jpg, Constantin Brâncuși
Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian Sculpture, sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century and a pioneer of ...
, ''Portrait of Mademoiselle Pogany'', 1912, white marble; limestone block, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show
File:Otto Gutfreund (Cellista).jpg, Otto Gutfreund, ''Cellist'', 1912–13
File:Marcel Duchamp, 1917, Fountain, photograph by Alfred Stieglitz.jpg, Marcel Duchamp, ''Fountain (Duchamp), Fountain'', 1917
File:JacobEpstein DayAndNight.jpg, Jacob Epstein, ''Day and Night'', carved for the London Underground's headquarters, 1928.
File:Orzeł ministerstwo infrastruktury.jpg, Mieczysław Kotarbiński, ''Coat of arms of Poland'', basalt relief in Art Deco style, Warsaw, 1931.
File:Het treurende ouderpaar - Käthe Kolwitz.JPG, Käthe Kollwitz, ''The Grieving Parents'', 1932, World War I memorial (for her son Peter), Vladslo German war cemetery
File:Jacques Lipchitz, Birth of the Muses (1944-1950), MIT Campus.JPG, Jacques Lipchitz, ''Birth of the Muses'', 1944–1950
File:Barbara Hepworth monolyth empyrean.jpg, Barbara Hepworth, ''Monolith-Empyrean'', 1953
File:John Chamberlain at the Hirshhorn.jpg, John Chamberlain (sculptor), John Chamberlain, ''S'', 1959, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC.
File:Moore ThreePieceRecliningFigureNo1 1961.jpg, Henry Moore, ''Three Piece Reclining figure No.1'', 1961, Yorkshire
File:2004-09-07 1800x2400 chicago picasso.jpg, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
, Chicago Picasso, 1967, Chicago, Illinois
File:George Rickey Ri10.gif, George Rickey, ''Four Squares in Geviert,'' 1969, terrace of the New National Gallery, Berlin, Germany, Rickey is considered a Kinetic art, Kinetic sculptor
File:Alexander Calder Crinkly avec disc Rouge 1973-1.jpg, Alexander Calder, ''Crinkly avec disc rouge'', 1973, Schlossplatz, Stuttgart
File:Atmos n Environ XII.JPG, Louise Nevelson, ''Atmosphere and Environment XII'', 1970–1973, Philadelphia Museum of Art
File:caro_1974.jpg, Sir Anthony Caro, ''Black Cover Flat'', 1974, steel, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
File:Dona i Ocell.JPG, Joan Miró, ''Dona i Ocell, Woman and Bird'', 1982, Barcelona, Spain
File:Spider. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao.JPG, Louise Bourgeois, ''Maman (sculpture), Maman'', 1999, outside Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Museo Guggenheim
Contemporary movements
![20180317 device to root out evil D20 5979](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/20180317_device_to_root_out_evil_D20_5979.jpg)
Site-specific art, Site specific and
environmental art works are represented by artists:
Andy Goldsworthy, Walter De Maria, Richard Long (artist), Richard Long, Richard Serra, Robert Irwin (artist), Robert Irwin, George Rickey and Christo and Jeanne-Claude led contemporary abstract sculpture in new directions. Artists created
environmental sculpture on expansive sites in the 'Land Arts of the American West, land art in the American West' group of projects. These
land art
Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mov ...
or 'earth art' environmental scale sculpture works exemplified by artists such as Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer, James Turrell (Roden Crater). Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt, Jackie Winsor, Keith Sonnier, Bruce Nauman and Dennis Oppenheim among others were pioneers of Postminimalist sculpture.
Also during the 1960s and 1970s artists as diverse as Eduardo Paolozzi, Chryssa, Claes Oldenburg, George Segal (artist), George Segal, Edward Kienholz, Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell, Duane Hanson, and John DeAndrea explored abstraction, imagery and figuration through video art, environment, light sculpture, and installation art in new ways.
Conceptual art is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Works include ''One and Three Chairs'', 1965, is by Joseph Kosuth, and ''An Oak Tree'' by Michael Craig-Martin, and those of Joseph Beuys, James Turrell and Jacek Tylicki.
Minimalism
File:Tonysmith freeride sculpture.jpg, Tony Smith (sculptor), Tony Smith, ''Free Ride,'' 1962, 6'8 x 6'8 x 6'8 (the height of a standard US door opening), Museum of Modern Art, New York
File:UntitledGoldBox1964.jpg, Larry Bell (artist), Larry Bell, ''Untitled'' 1964, bismuth, chromium, gold, and rhodium on gold-plated brass; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
File:Judd Muenster.JPG, Donald Judd, ''Untitled'' 1977, Münster, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
File:RichardSerra Fulcrum2.jpg, Richard Serra, ''Fulcrum'' 1987, 55 ft high free standing sculpture of Cor-ten, Cor-ten steel near Liverpool Street station, London
File:DonaldֹJudd IMJ.JPG, Donald Judd, ''Untitled,'' 1991, Israel Museum Art Garden, Jerusalem
Postminimalism
File:South Bank Circle by Richard Long, Tate Liverpool.jpg, Richard Long (artist), Richard Long, ''South Bank Circle,'' 1991 Tate Liverpool, England
File:Aile Entravée.Jean Yves Lechevallier.jpg, Jean-Yves Lechevallier, ''Fettered wing''. 1991
File:TWUP Jerusalem 190810 1.JPG, Anish Kapoor, ''Turning the World Upside Down'', Israel Museum, 2010
File:Rachel whitereadwien holocaust mahnmal wien judenplatz.jpg, Rachel Whiteread, ''Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial'', Vienna, 2000
File:Public contemporary-light-art-sculpture-manfred-kielnhofer-illumination.jpg, ''Guardians of Time'', light sculpture
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 ter ...
by Manfred Kielnhofer at the Light Art Biennale Austria 2010
File:The Spire-doyler79.jpg, The Spire of Dublin officially titled the ''Monument of Light'', stainless steel, , the world's tallest sculpture
Contemporary genres
![Spiral-jetty-from-rozel-point](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Spiral-jetty-from-rozel-point.png)
Some modern sculpture forms are now practiced outdoors, as
environmental art and
environmental sculpture, often in full view of spectators. Light sculpture,
street art sculpture and
site-specific art also often make use of the environment. Ice sculpture is a form of ephemeral sculpture that uses ice as the raw material. It is popular in China, Japan, Canada, Sweden, and Russia. Ice sculptures feature decoratively in some cuisines, especially in Asia. Kinetic art, Kinetic sculptures are sculptures that are designed to move, which include Mobile (sculpture), mobiles. Snow sculptures are usually carved out of a single block of snow about on each side and weighing about 20–30 tons. The snow is densely packed into a form after having been produced by artificial means or collected from the ground after a snowfall. Sound sculptures take the form of indoor sound installations, outdoor installations such as aeolian harps, automatons, or be more or less near conventional musical instruments. Sound sculpture is often site-specific. Art toys have become another format for contemporary artists since the late 1990s, such as those produced by Takashi Murakami and Kid Robot, designed by Michael Lau, or hand-made by Michael Leavitt (artist).
Conservation
![Pollution - Damaged by acid rain](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Pollution_-_Damaged_by_acid_rain.jpg)
Sculptures are sensitive to environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and exposure to light and ultraviolet light. Acid rain can also cause damage to certain building materials and historical monuments. This results when sulfuric acid in the rain chemically reacts with the calcium compounds in the stones (limestone, sandstone, marble and granite) to create
gypsum
Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...
, which then flakes off. Severe air pollution also causes damage to historical monuments.
At any time many contemporary sculptures have usually been on display in public places; theft was not a problem as pieces were instantly recognisable. In the early 21st century the value of metal rose to such an extent that theft of massive bronze sculpture for the value of the metal became a problem; sculpture worth millions being stolen and melted down for the relatively low value of the metal, a tiny fraction of the value of the artwork.
BBC: Barbara Hepworth sculpture stolen from Dulwich Park, 20 December 2011
. Example of theft of large bronze sculpture for the value of the metal.
Form
Cultural
* Classical sculpture, Classical
* French sculpture, French
* Italian Renaissance sculpture, Italian Renaissance
Method
* Bronze sculpture, Bronze
* Butter sculpture, Butter
* Electrotyping
* Gas sculpture, Gas
* Hill figure
* Living sculpture, Living
* Mobile (sculpture), Mobiles
* Origami
* Plaster cast
* Tondo (art), Tondo
* Tree shaping
* Wax sculpture, Wax
* Welded sculpture, Welded
Application
* Architectural sculpture, Architectural
* Garden sculpture, Garden
* Marriage stone
* Mask
* Monumental sculpture, Monumental
* Relief
** Rock relief
* Sculpture garden
See also
* List of sculptors
* List of female sculptors
* Outline of sculpture
* List of Stone Age art
* List of sculpture parks
* List of most expensive sculptures
* List of tallest statues
* Assemblage (art), Assemblage
* Cass Sculpture Foundation
Notes
References
* Boucher, Bruce, ''Italian Baroque Sculpture'', 1998, Thames & Hudson (World of Art),
* Anthony Blunt, Blunt Anthony, ''Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450–1660'', OUP, 1940 (refs to 1985 edn),
* John Boardman (art historian), Boardman, John ed., ''The Oxford History of Classical Art'', OUP, 1993,
* Briggs, Philip (2015) [1995]. ''Ethiopia''. Chalfont St Peter: Bradt Travel Guides. .
* Burnett, Andrew, ''Coins; Interpreting the Past'', University of California/British Museum, 1991,
* Calkins, Robert G.; ''Monuments of Medieval Art'', Dutton, 1979,
* Cherry, John. ''The Holy Thorn Reliquary'', 2010, British Museum Press (British Museum objects in focus),
* Robert Manuel Cook, Cook, R.M., ''Greek Art'', Penguin, 1986 (reprint of 1972),
* De Lorenzi, James (2015). ''Guardians of the Tradition: Historians and Historical Writing in Ethiopia and Eritrea''. Rochester: University of Rochester Press. .
* Charles Reginald Dodwell, Dodwell, C.R., ''Anglo-Saxon Art, A New Perspective'', 1982, Manchester University Press,
* Henri Frankfort, Frankfort, Henri, ''The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient'', Pelican History of Art, 4th ed 1970, Penguin (now Yale History of Art),
* Harkless, Necia Desiree (2006). ''Nubian Pharaohs and Meroitic Kings: The Kingdom of Kush''. Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse. .
* Harle, J. C., ''The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent'', 2nd edn. 1994, Yale University Press Pelican History of Art,
* Henderson, George. ''Gothic'', 1967, Penguin,
* Henig, Martin (ed.), ''A Handbook of Roman Art'', Phaidon, 1983,
* Robert Treat Paine, Paine, Robert Treat, in: Paine, R. T., & A. Soper, ''The Art and Architecture of Japan'', 3rd edn 1981, Yale University Press Pelican History of Art,
* Hugh Honour and John Fleming, ''A World History of Art'', 1st edn. 1982 (many later editions), Macmillan, London, page refs to 1984 Macmillan 1st edn paperback.
* Howgego, Christopher, ''Ancient History from Coins'', Routledge, 1995,
* Ernst Kitzinger, Kitzinger, Ernst, ''Byzantine art in the making: main lines of stylistic development in Mediterranean art, 3rd–7th century'', 1977, Faber & Faber, (US: Cambridge UP, 1977)
* Olson, Roberta J. M., ''Italian Renaissance Sculpture'', 1992, Thames & Hudson (World of Art),
* Jessica Rawson, Rawson, Jessica (ed.). ''The British Museum Book of Chinese Art'', 2007 (2nd edn), British Museum Press,
* Piotrovsky, M. B., and J. M. Rogers (eds), ''Heaven on Earth: Art from Islamic Lands'', 2004, Prestel,
* Robinson, James, ''Masterpieces of Medieval Art'', 2008, British Museum Press,
* Sandars, Nancy K., ''Prehistoric Art in Europe'', Penguin (Pelican, now Yale, History of Art), 1968 (nb 1st edn.; early datings now superseded)
*
* Sickman, Laurence, in: Sickman L., & A. Soper, "The Art and Architecture of China", ''Pelican History of Art'', 3rd edn 1971, Penguin (now Yale History of Art), LOC 70-125675
*Simon, Joshua. ''Neomaterialism'', Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2013,
* Smith, W. Stevenson, and Simpson, William Kelly. ''The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt'', 3rd edn. 1998, Yale University Press (Penguin/Yale History of Art),
* James Snyder (art historian), Snyder, James. ''Northern Renaissance Art'', 1985, Harry N. Abrams,
* Sobania, Neal W. (2012), "Lalibela", in Akyeampong, Emmanuel; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., ''Dictionary of African Biography'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 462, .
* Sobania, Neal W. (2012). "Lalibela", in Akyeampong, Emmanuel; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., ''Dictionary of African Biography''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. .
* Strong, Donald, et al., ''Roman Art'', 1995 (2nd edn), Yale University Press (Penguin/Yale History of Art),
* Williams, Dyfri. ''Masterpieces of Classical Art'', 2009, British Museum Press,
External links
Sculpture "hub"
at the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
Corning Museum of Glass
Cass Sculpture Foundation
, a charity dedicated to commissioning monumental sculpture.
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* Current research on polychromy on ancient sculpture at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptote
Tracking Colour
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Sculpture,
Visual arts terminology
Sculpture techniques, .
Sculptures,