Sculpture

WHAT IS SCULPTURE?

The sculpture is the art and technique of sculpturing, to express the artistic intuition thanks to materials. The sculpture is also the name of the final product, tridimentional object created for art. The sculpture is every plastic object, scultured, shaped, melted.

SCULPTURE HISTORY

Sculpture is one of the human oldest form of art. With ciladic civilization began the use of marble, clay, alabaster and limestone. Egyptian artists used volcanic stones as granite, porphyry, basalt or other materials as wood, clay and ivory. Etruscan art used local materials. The Minoan-Mycenaean civilization made also bronze fusion, but only with the Greek civilization monumental sculpture born.

GREEK SCULPTURE: was an important inspiration for the future civilizations. The first important sculptures came from the VII century a.C. These artworks were influenced by egyptian art. The theme was the beauty and strength rappresentation of a human figure which was at the best of its mental and fisical qualities. It express an ideal beauty, sometimes divine and out from any time and any place.

These sculptures were rappresentated standing up, with a rigid and static pose, with the arms along the sides and a leg forward. The hairstyle was similar to the Egyptian ones.

At the begging of V century a.C. greek artists created a new artistic language, more expressive and less refined (severe style). Artists rappresented correctly the human movement.

At half V century there was the passage to the classic style. In this period Polykleitos studied the human body and created the standard for ideal human body proportions. For example, the head is exactly 8 times contained in a perfect body.

During the IV century a.C. greek artists rappresented human feelings.

Lastly, the ellenistic sculpture used spettacular effects, with drama and movement.

SCULPTURE FORMS

FULL-RELIEF SCULPTURE: it can be osservated from all directions. It rappresents the real volume of objects or human figures with their tridimensional consistency. It can be a sculpture, groups or objects indipendents in the space.

HIGH-RELIEF SCULPTURE: this type of sculpture arises for many cm from the surface. If we look at it from the front, it seems complete in all its part, but, in the reality, it is complete only in the front.

BAS-RELIEF SCULPTURE: this type of sculpture arises a little from the support. There is less chiaroscuro than in high-relief sculpture.

TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS

A sculpture is preceded by a model, made of clay, then formed in gypsum with the mould system. Then it can be translated in marble with bringing back of measures or carrying the most protruding parts on the marble. Then the artist completes the sculpture removing excess material, using scalpels. Then he sculpture is frosted and lucidated. The modelling of clay, or other materials, is by hand, with lathe or a mould.