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19TH
CENTURY SCULPTORS
Auguste Preault (1809-1879)
Alfred Stevens (1817-75)
George Frederick Watts (1817-1904)
Pierre-Louis Rouillard (1820-81)
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875)
Frederic Leighton (1830–1896)
Jean Falguiere (1831-1900)
Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi 1834-1904
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Marius Mercier (1845-1916)
Camille Claudel (1864-1943)
Daniel Chester French (1850-1931)
MODERN SCULPTORS
Ernst Barlach (1870-1938)
Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876-1918)
Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916)
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)
Jean Arp (1886-1966)
Ossip Zadkine (1890-1967)
Naum Gabo (1890-1977)
Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973)
Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)
Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985)
Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975)
CONTEMPORARY SCULPTORS
Louise Bourgeois (b.1911)
Cesar Baldaccini (1921-1998)
Anthony Caro (b.1924)
Vassilakis Takis (b.1925)
Sol LeWitt (1928-2007)
Claes Oldenburg (b.1929)
Richard Serra (b.1939).
WHAT IS ART?
For an guide to the aesthetic and
classification issues concerning
fine/plastic arts, see:
Art Definition, Meaning.
VISUAL ARTS CATEGORIES
Definitions, forms, styles, genres,
periods, see: Types of Art.
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Principles of Sculptural Design
These regulate the approach of sculptors
to such matters as orientation, proportion, scale,
articulation and balance.
Orientation
To create a sense of harmony (or disharmony) in the sculpture itself,
or between parts of it, or between the sculpture and the viewer, or between
the sculpture and its surroundings, the sculptor usually works to a particular
spatial plan or scheme of reference. Such a plan, often based on a system
of axes and planes, is essential to maintain linear proportion amongst
other things. Thus for instance, the poses of human figures are typically
calculated and created with reference to the four cardinal planes, namely:
the the principle of axiality (eg. anatomical movement), the principle
of frontality (predominant in the kouros standing figures of Greek Archaic
sculpture), contrapposto - the dynamic pose in which one part of
the body twists or turns away from another part, exemplified in works
by Michelangelo (1475-1564) and Giambologna (1529-1608) - and the chiastic
stance (the pose in which the weight of the body rests mainly on one leg,
a typical characteristic of Greek figurative sculpture of the High Classical
period).
Proportion
How sculptors handle proportionality varies considerably. Some (eg. Egyptian
sculptors) observed hierarchic non-naturalistic canons of proportion (eg.
Gods the largest, Pharaohs next largest, citizens smallest etc). Other
sculptors have followed more naturalistic but equally iconometric rules
of proportion. By comparison, many tribal cultures employ systems which
- for religious or cultural reasons - accord greater size to certain parts
of the body (eg. the head). In addition, the specific siting of a sculpture
may require a special approach to proportionality. For example, a human
statue mounted on the top of a tall structure may require a larger upper
body to balance the effects of foreshortening when viewed from ground
level. (The great rococo painter Tiepolo was a master at counteracting
this effect when creating his ceiling frescos).
Scale
This refers, for example, to the need to create a sculpture in tune with
the scale of its surroundings. Walk around any major Gothic cathedral
and observe the great variety in the scale of the sculptures which decorate
the doorways, facades and other surfaces. In addition, certain groups
of figures, illustrating Biblical scenes, may contain several different
scales: the Virgin Mary and Jesus may be similar in size, while (eg) the
Apostles may be smaller.
Articulation
This describes how sculptural figures (and other forms) are jointed:,
either how the differing parts of a body merge in a single form, or how
separate sections come together. The realist French sculptor Auguste Rodin
(1840-1917) created impressionist-style continuity in his figures, in
contrast to the earlier Greek classical sculptors (eg. Polyklitus) and
Renaissance sculptors who preferred distinct units of delinated form.
Balance
In freestanding figurative sculpture, balance involves two principal matters.
First, the sculptural body must be physically stable - easy enough to
achieve in a crawling or reclining figure, less easy in a standing statue,
especially if leaning forwards or backwards. If naturally unstable, a
base must be used. Second, from a compositional viewpoint, the statue
must project a sense of dynamic or static equilibrium. Without such harmony,
beauty is almost impossible to achieve.
The Best Way to Understand Sculpture
Are you baffled by all these weird concepts
about the elements and principles of sculptural design theory? Don't worry,
many sculptors are, too. The best way to understand sculpture is to look
at as much of it as you can, ideally in the flesh. If possible, visit
your nearest public art museum and take a look at some copies of Greek
or Renaissance sculpture. This should give you a good grasp of traditional-style
works. In addition, if feasible, visit any exhibition which includes works
by sculptors like Ernst Barlach (1870-1938), Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916),
Jean Arp (1886-1966), Naum Gabo (1890-1977), Alexander Calder (1898-1976),
Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975), Louise Bourgeois
(b.1911), Sol LeWitt (1928-2007), or Richard Serra (b.1939). Works by
any of these modern artists should give you plenty to think about.
Materials
Almost any material capable of being shaped
in three dimensions can be used in sculpting. But some materials like
stone - especially hard limestone (marble) - wood, clay, metal (eg. bronze),
ivory and plaster have exceptional "plastic" attributes and
have therefore proved most popular to sculptors from prehistoric times
onward. As a result, for most of its history, sculpture has been created
using four basic methods: stone carving, wood carving, bronze casting
and clay firing.
Stone Sculpture
Stone sculpture,
probably the earliest form of monumental sculpture as well as the best
medium for monumental works, was common to many eras of the Paleolithic
Stone Age. Prototype works of prehistoric stone sculpture include the
basaltic figurine known as The Venus of Berekhat Ram (c.230,000
BCE or earlier) and quartzite figurine known as The Venus of Tan-Tan
(c.200,000 BCE or earlier). Since then, probably the largest body of stone
sculpture was the series of column statues and reliefs produced for the
great European Gothic cathedrals of Chartres, Notre Dame de Paris, Amiens,
Reims, Cologne, among many others, during the period 1150-1300.
Stones from all three principal categories
of rock formation have been sculpted, including igneous (eg. granite),
sedimentary (eg. limestones and sandstones) and metamorphic (eg. marble).
Pure white Italian Carrara marble was used in Roman
art and in the Early and High Renaissance by artists like Donatello
and Michelangelo, while Greek artists preferred Pentelic marble to make
the Parthenon sculptures. (See also: Marble
Sculpture.) Irish sculpture in the late medieval era was principally
confined to Celtic
High Crosses, made from granite, as was the earlier Turoe
Stone.
Supreme examples of marble sculpture are
Pieta (1497-99) and David (1501-4) by Michelangelo, The
Ecstasy of St Theresa (1647) by the Baroque genius Bernini, Cupid
and Psyche (1796-7) by the Neo-classicist Antonio Canova, and The
Kiss (1889) by the French genius Auguste Rodin.
Wood Sculpture
Wood
carving is almost certainly the oldest and most continuous type of
sculpture. Especially convenient for small works, wood carving was widely
practised during the Prehistoric era, and had its Golden Age in the West,
especially in Germany, during the Medieval period and the Northern Renaissance:
witness the exquisite religious limewood carvings of the German wood-carvers
Veit Stoss (1445-1533) and Tilman Riemenschneider (1460-1531). Later,
in the Baroque era, wood was often coated in plaster stucco and painted,
in the manner of ancient Egyptian art. Great modern wood-sculptors include
Henry Moore (1898-1986) known for his elmwood Reclining Figure
(1936), and Barbara Hepworth (1903-75).
Bronze Sculpture
Sculpting in bronze
is a complicated process which was developed independently in China, South
America and Egypt. Bronze casting requires the modelling of a form in
clay, plaster or wax, which is later removed after the molten bronze has
been poured. The lost-wax method was a common technique during the Renaissance
era.
Famous early masterpieces include The
Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-Daro (c.2,500 BCE), the wonderful bronze figurine
of the Harappan Culture (Indus Valley Civilization, India), and the hoard
of bronze plaques and sculptures (made using piece-mold casting) with
jade decoration found in the Yellow River Basin of Henan Province, Central
China, dating from the Xia Realm and later Shang Dynasty Period (from
c.1,750 BCE).
Later bronze masterpieces include the Gates
of Paradise, by Lorenzo
Ghiberti (1378-1455), David by Donatello (1386-1466), and by
Michelangelo, Rape of the Sabines (c.1583) by Giambologna, The
Burghers of Calais (1884-9) and the Gates of Hell (1880-1917)
by Auguste Rodin, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913) by
Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916), Bird in Space (1923) by the Romanian
abstract sculptor Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957), Woman with her Throat
Cut (1932) and Walking Man I (1960) by Alberto Giacometti (1901-66),
and The Destroyed City (1953) by Ossip Zadkine (1890-1967).
Clay Sculpture
Sculpting in clay dates from the Stone
Age. It is the most plastic of all sculpting materials, and easy to fashion.
Although mainly used for preliminary models, later cast in bronze or carved
in stone, it has also been used to produce full-scale sculpture. The earliest
known clay sculpture is the Venus of Dolni Vestonice (c.26,000
- 24,000 BCE), a ceramic carving of a female dating to the Gravettian
Period, discovered in the Czech Republic. Another Paleolithic masterpiece
is the Tuc d'Audoubert Bison of the Magdalenian period (c.13,500
BCE), an unfired relief of two bison, found in the Tuc d'Audoubert Cave,
Ariege, France. A third prehistoric masterpiece is The Thinker of Cernavoda
(c.5,000 BCE), the iconic terracotta figurine created during the mesolithic
Hamangia Culture in Romania.
However, the most famous example of clay
sculpture must be the Chinese Qin Dynasty Terracotta Army (the 'Terracotta
Warriors'), a collection of 8,000 clay warriors and horses unearthed in
1974 in Shaanxi province, China. Dating to 246-208 BCE, each of the 8,000
clay soldiers is unique, with a different facial expression and hairstyle.
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