WHAT IS SCULPTURE ?

 Sculpture is the art of making figures, such as human forms, animals or

geometrics that can either be standing freely or attached to a background
frame, either single or in a group. When it can stand freely, it is called
three-dimensional or free-standing sculpture.
Three-Dimensional or Free-Standing Sculpture
Relief Sculpture
 Relief Sculpture is when the figure is mounted to the background, which
may either be a frame, a wall or a flat surface
High Relief Sculpture
 the form is embossed or raised above the surface of the background. The
artist, however, does not show the human figure, for example, in its actual
form and dimension as the form blends with the flat background
Low Relief Sculpture
 the figure is raised only a little from the background, as in the case of coins.
In some artworks, the artist cuts into the surface or carves deep into the
material until the form is incised but separated from the background

The Composition of Sculpture

Subtraction
 Carved works are subtractive. Using a large block of wood or stone, the
sculptor carves out the figure or “frees” the figure from imprisonment in its
original block form to give it an artistic look
Construction
 The sculptor chooses a base material such as metal, plastics, aluminum,
steel or found objects and then adds other elements to “construct” the idea
or image that he/she wants to express.
Substitution
 Any material transformable from a plastic, molten or fluid state can be
molded or cast into a work of sculpture.
HISTORY TIMELINE OF SCULPTURE
1. In the recesses of caves, people begin to decorate the rock face with
an important theme in their daily lives, the bison and reindeer which
are their prey as Ice Age hunters. And sculptors carve portable images
of another predominant interest of mankind - the swelling curves of
the female form, emphasizing the fertility on which the survival of the
tribe depends.

Perhaps the most famous of early sculptures is the so-called Venus of

Willendorf. Found at Willendorf in Austria, and dating from more than
25,000 years ago, she is only about four inches high. More than 100
fertility figures of this kind have been found in an area reaching from
France to southern Russia.

2. The first civilization to establish a recognizable artistic style is Egypt. This style
follows a strange but remarkably consistent convention, by which the feet,
legs and head of each human figure are shown in profile, but the torso,
shoulders, arms and eye are depicted as if from the front.
Sculpture in Egypt depicts their pharaoh often and as a commemorative
symbol of their victories

Some of the known Egyptian sculptures are the

SPHINX
ABU SIMBEL TEMPLE
SCULPTURES FOUND AT TELL ELL AMARMA
 3. Greece inthe classical period makes the innovations which underlie the
mainstream western tradition in art. This is true of both painting and
sculpture.
The essential characteristic of classical Greek art is a heroic realism. Painters
and sculptors attempt to reveal the human body, in movement or repose,
exactly as it appears to the eye. The emphasis will be on people of unusual
beauty, or moments of high and noble drama.
o Charioteer of Delphi,is one of the best
known statues surviving from Ancient Greece,
and is considered one of the finest examples of
ancient bronze sculptures. The life-size
(1.8m)] statue of a chariot driver was found in
1896 at the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi.
o The Aphrodite of Knidos (or Cnidus) was
an Ancient Greek sculpture of the
goddess Aphrodite created
by Praxiteles of Athens around the 4th century BCE. It
is one of the first life-sized representations of the
nude female form in Greek history, displaying an
alternative idea to male heroic nudity

Romans and greeks use sculpture as public statements of victories

Sculpting is used as a means to tell the stories of victories
4. The lively traditions of Indian sculpture date back to the first Indian empire,
that of the Maurya dynasty. Sculptors begin to carve characters and scenes
from the stories of India's three interconnected religions
- Hinduism, Buddhismand to a lesser extent Jainism.
o HINDUISM - The presentation tends to
be frontal, as though the figures are
posing for the camera. From the start,
among other themes, there are
examples of Hindu art's most abiding
image - magnificent young women,
nude, full-breasted, and often in some
 strikingly athletic pose (as in the famous
temples of Khajuraho, of about the 11th
century AD). Occasionally these are just female
attendants, but more often they are characters
of legend.
o BUDDHISM - The Seated Buddha from
Gandhara is an early statue of
the Buddha discovered at the site of Jamal
Garhi in ancient Gandhara in modern-
day Pakistan, that dates to the 2nd or 3rd century AD.
5. Romanesque, a word not coined until the 18th
century, is first used to describe the architecture
of western Europe from about the 9th to 12th
century. It has become applied by extension to
other arts, in particular sculpture. But the term
remains most appropriate to architecture, where
the round arches of Romanesque can easily be
seen as what the name implies - a continuation of
the Roman tradition. The capitals of columns,
carved with nothing more exotic than acanthus
leaves in the classical tradition, provide one area
in which the Romanesque sculptor lets his
imagination run wild. In abbey cloisters of the
period (and abbots are among the main patrons of
art in the Romanesque centuries) the tops of the
pillars are often alive with vivid biblical scenes or
endearingly grotesque monsters, cunningly carved
to make the most of the available shape.
6. The Gothic style, though also used in secular
buildings, is most associated with the great cathedrals
of Europe. There are certain immediately recognizable
characteristics in any Gothic cathedral.
By contrast Gothic sculptures are tall and thin,
reflecting the soaring vertical lines of the new style.
Alcoves to each side of high cathedral porches are the
favourite location for these figures
 • Chartres offers the earliest surviving examples of Gothic sculpture.

1. RENNAISANCE
An important element of the Renaissance is the rediscovery of the realistic
free-standing human figure as sculpted in Greece and Rome. But the
emergence of Renaissance sculpture is not nearly as sudden a process as the
change involved in Renaissance architecture. In this era well known artisans
where born like
Donatello,
Michelangelo,
Da Vinci and many more