From the rigid archaic male figures, known as kouroi , of the sixth century B. The stiff and elongated figural forms of the Gothic style that were popular in the 12th through 14th centuries see "Gothic Art" on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Timeline of Art History gave way, in the Renaissance, to the re-birth of ancient Greek and Roman naturalism and subject matter. Michelangelo borrows from the ancient world in his famous sculpture of David by carving the human form in a contrapposto pose—depicting an individual in a relaxed, natural stance on one weight-bearing leg.
Artists from the Baroque period that followed continued to depict the human form, often composing their works using multiple figures in very dynamic compositions. Human forms were depicted spiraling and twisting around an empty central vortex, or reaching out into the surrounding space. The movement and energy of these human forms gave viewers multiple viewing angles, such as that seen, below, in the sculpture Pluto Abducting Prosperine by Girardon.
Neoclassical Sculpture In the 18th century, the discovery of and interest in ancient archaeological sites, such as Herculaneum and Pompeii, sparked a renewed interest in the arts of ancient Greece and Rome. Neoclassicism came from a desire to imbue the visual arts with greater seriousness and moral commitment—virtues thought to exemplify ancient ideals. White marble, which evoked ancient sculpture, became the preferred material of the Neoclassical sculptor.
In the 18th century there was a widely held, though erroneous, belief that people living in ancient times preferred this aesthetically pure material for their sculptural works. In fact, Classical marble sculpture was typically covered in brightly hued paint, which, due to weathering, had largely disappeared from the excavated works.
Bronze was also often used in ancient times for large-scale sculpture. While a few examples of Classical bronze sculptures were known in the 18th century, the great majority of ancient works in this medium had been melted down for more practical applications after the fall of Rome.
Most of the sculptures entering the great collections of Europe were marble; therefore, people living in the 18th century primarily associated marble with the ancient world. Modern and Contemporary Sculpture In the latter half of the 19th century and the earlyth century, a movement called Modernism departed from the Neoclassical style. At this time, sculptors showed less interest in naturalism and paid more attention to stylization, form, and contrasting qualities of the surface of the material, as seen here in Head with Horns , seen here.
They had many statues, which served as representations of their gods, the nobles and their rulers and these were available in the burial sites and their temples. They believed that spirits could return to these statues. Some would represent their sailing activities, and others would show them herding cattle while others were a depiction of their house chores. The statues were such that they appeared alive. Mesopotamia had a history of dealing with invasive floods and armies, and the society lacked the resources required for majestic structures.
However, they created art using light materials such as shells, clay, and wood. The figures had cone shapes with small heads, large eyes and pointed noses, which was entirely different from what the Egyptians made.
Modern sculptors, borrowing from these civilizations and others such as the Romans and Greeks, were able to enhance the beauty of the art, thus relaying emotions, reality, and aesthetics in their resultant pieces.
We recognize sculpture as a form of representation which people not only use for religious purposes but also as a means of honoring people in society. But what is anti-sculpture and what effects have such movements had on this art? Through the centuries, there have been many remarkable sculptors who have impressed people with their skills, works and techniques. Visiting a museum on a gloomy day will have you in the company of countless other people.
You can enjoy a fun day out as you get to explore the beauty that sculptures add to parks and museums. Here are a few places you can visit in this regard:. The Beginning The belief is that sculpting is one of the oldest forms of art, as it came to be before the discovery of painting.
Cathedral facades and doorways were typically filled with sculptural reliefs depicting Biblical scenes, as well as rows of sculptures portraying Prophets, Apostles, ancient Kings of Judea, and other gospel figures.
Interiors featured column statues and more reliefs, the whole thing being laid out according to an intricate plan of gospel iconography designed to educate and inspire illiterate worshippers.
In essence, the Gothic cathedral was intended to represent the Universe in miniature - a unique piece of Christian art designed to convey a sense of God's power and glory and the rational ordered nature of his worldly plan. In summary, Gothic sculpture represented the high-point of monumental religious art. Although the Church would continue to invest heavily in the power of painting and sculpture to inspire the masses notably in the Counter Reformation Baroque period , the Gothic era was really the apogee of "idealistic" religious artistry.
Henceforth, the art of sculpture would become more and more enmeshed in secular as well as Papal politics. Famous Gothic Sculptors: Nicola Pisano c. Italian Renaissance Sculpture c. The Italian Renaissance was inspired by the "rediscovery" of, and reverence for, the arts of Classical Antiquity, especially in the field of architecture and sculpture.
Renaissance art was also coloured by a strong belief in Humanism and the nobility of Man. It began in Florence, being inspired by individuals such as the architect Filippo Brunelleschi , the sculptor Donatello , the painter Tommaso Masaccio and the theorist Leon Battista Alberti , and financed by the Medici Family. The arts in Northern Europe notably Flanders, Holland, Germany and England also underwent a renaissance, particularly in oil painting, printmaking and to a lesser extent wood-carving, although this so-called Northern Renaissance developed somewhat independently due to the Reformation c.
Given the respect accorded to the Italian Renaissance, it's easy to forget that many Italian artists were strongly influenced by Gothic traditions and craftsmanship. Renaissance sculptors, in particular, were indebted to their Gothic predecessors.
One need only study the reliefs on the facades and doorways of 12th century cathedrals to see the extraordinary three-dimensional realism and emotionalism which was being achieved centuries before the Renaissance. The big difference between Gothic and Renaissance sculptors is that the names of the latter are now world-famous, while many of the former are unknown. Bearing this in mind, Early Renaissance sculptors sought to improve further on Gothic works, taking much of their inspiration from Classical Roman and Greek sculpture.
In so doing, they injected their statues with a range of emotion and imbued them with new energy and thought. In , a competition was held for the commission to create a pair of bronze doors for the Florence Baptistry of St.
John - one of the oldest surviving churches in the city. Lorenzo Ghiberti duly won the commission for the doors, which took him 27 years to finish. A second similar commission followed, occupying Ghiberti for a further 25 years. However, his gates became a tangible symbol of Florentine art, causing Michelangelo to refer to them "the Gates of Paradise". Donatello , the first real genius of Italian Renaissance Sculpture , reinvented the medium of sculpture in much the same way as Masaccio, Piero della Francesca and Mantegna revolutionized the art of painting.
Capable of investing his figures with intense realism and emotion, his masterpiece is his bronze sculpture David c. The slender form of the Biblical shepherd boy seems hardly capable of the homicidal skill required to slay Goliath, but both his pensive feminine pose with its Classical contrapposto twist of the hips , exerts a hypnotic effect on the viewer.
It must surely be one of the greatest statues ever created. For details, see: David by Donatello. The David c. Other important sculptors of the early Renaissance include: Jacopo della Quercia c. Renaissance sculptors were dominated by Michelangelo , the greatest sculptor of the Italian Renaissance, and arguably of all time. The art historian Anthony Blunt said of Michelangelo's works like Pieta , marble, Saint Peters Basilica, Rome , David , marble, Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence and Dying Slave , marble, Louvre, Paris that they possessed a "superhuman quality" but also "a feeling of brooding, of sombre disquiet In the field of the heroic male nude he remains the supreme exponent.
For more, see David by Michelangelo. Other important sculptors of the High Renaissance include the artist and Venetian architect Jacopo Sansovino and Baccio Bandinelli In Northern Europe, the art of sculpture was exemplified in particular by two awesome craftsmen who took the art of sculpting in wood to new heights: the German limewood sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider , noted for his reliefs and freestanding wood sculpture; and the wood-carver Veit Stoss renowned for his delicate altarpieces.
Other important sculptors from North of the Alps include: Hans Multscher c. If the confidence and order of the High Renaissance period was reflected in its idealised forms of figurative sculpture, Mannerist sculpture reflected the chaos and uncertainty of a Europe racked by religious division and a Rome recently sacked and occupied by mercenary French soldiers. Mannerist sculptors introduced a new expressiveness into their works, as exemplified by the powerful Rape of the Sabines by Giambologna , and Perseus by Benvenuto Cellini However, compare the famous naturalistic recumbent marble statue of Saint Cecilia by Stefano Maderno For the top French Mannerist sculptors, see: Jean Goujon c.
Baroque Sculpture c. During the later 16th century, in response to the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church launched its own Counter Reformation. This propaganda campaign, designed to persuade worshippers to return to the "true" Church, employed the full panoply of the visual arts, including architecture, sculpture and painting, and became associated with a grander, more dramatic idiom known as Baroque art. It entailed massive patronage for artists - good news for sculptors!
Even Saint Peter's Square in Rome, was remodelled in order to awe visitors. Bernini was the greatest of all Baroque sculptors. Drawn to the dramatic naturalism of what is called the Hellenistic baroque style of the second and first century BCE, eg.
It was as if he treated the relatively intractable materials of sculpture as if they were entirely malleable. His sculptural technique and composition were so stunning that he attracted no little criticism from envious rivals.
If Bernini epitomized Greek dramatic naturalism, Algardi's style was more restrained critics say feeble. Another rival was the Flemish sculptor Francois Duquesnoy whose style was entirely classical. Duquesnoy was rather a shadowy figure who worked in a severe, unemotional style which was nevertheless highly regarded by academic writers for its perfect synthesis of nature and the antique.
The draperies flow elegantly, following the shape of the body, while the figure is balanced in perfect grace and repose - the complete opposite of Bernini's dynamic movement and intense feeling. French Baroque sculpture was exemplified by Francois Girardon , a sort of French Algardi, and his rival Antoine Coysevox whose looser style was still relatively restrained compared to Bernini, and Pierre Puget who was one of the very few sculptors to recapture the immediacy of Bernini's best work.
For more, see: Baroque Sculpture. Rococo Sculpture c. Basically a French reaction against the seriousness of the Baroque, Rococo art began in the French court at the Palace of Versailles before spreading across Europe.
If Baroque sculpture was dramatic and serious, Rococo was all frills and no substance, although in reality it was not so much a different style from the Baroque but rather a variation on the style brought to fruition by Bernini and his contemporaries.
Even so, one can talk about Rococo qualities in a work of sculpture - informality, gaiety, a concern for matters of the heart and a self-conscious avoidance of seriousness. The most successful sculptor of the first half of the 18th century was Guillaume Coustou , Director of the French Academy from , who continued the baroque trend of his uncle Coysevox.
His pupil, Edme Bouchardon , is a more interesting figure. Jean-Baptiste Pigalle , a favourite of Madame de Pompadour, was another important exemplar of the Rococo style as was his chief rival was Etienne-Maurice Falconet who specialized in erotic figures that have a tenuous derivation from Hellenistic originals. German Rococo sculpture was exemplified in works by the Dresden sculptor Balthazar Permoser , small groups of craftsmen working in the churches of Catholic southern Germany, and Ignaz Gunther whose figurative sculptures have a hard surface realism and polychromed surface reminiscent of medieval German wood-carving.
Whimsical decadent Rococo was swept away by the French Revolution which ushered in the new sterner style of Neoclassicism. Neoclassical Sculpture Flourished c. Neoclassical art - basically Greek art with a modern twist - was dominated by Neoclassical architecture.
Neoclassical sculpture involved an emphasis on the virtues of heroicism, duty and gravitas. Only later in the 18th century did a worthy successor to Canova appear in the person of the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorwaldsen , who approached the antique with a comparable high-mindedness albeit with less originality. In many ways, the nineteenth century was an age of crisis for sculpture. In simple terms, architectural development had largely exhausted itself, religious patronage had declined as a result of the French Revolution, and the general climate of "populism", began to cause much confusion in the minds of institutional and private patrons as to what constituted acceptable subjects and styles for sculptural representation.
Being involved in a more expensive art-form than painters, and thus dependent on high-cost commissions, sculptors often found themselves at the mercy of public opinion in the form of town councils and committees. Aside from a number of grandiose public monuments, and the usual commemorative statues of Bishops and Kings - invariably executed in the sterile, conformist style required by the authorities eg.
Painting on the other hand was undergoing huge and exciting changes. In short, it was not a great time to be involved in 3-D art. One of the most talented artists was the light-hearted Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux , whose sensuality was adapted to the demands of decorative sculptors of the s by Ernest Carrier-Belleuse , otherwise most noted for the fact that one of his pupils was an unknown sculptor called Auguste Rodin.
Jules Dalou was a more contemplative and serious follower of Carpeaux. Among the 19th century classicists, leading figures included John Gibson , the talented but frustrated Alfred Stevens , the versatile George Frederick Watts , and the American Hiram Powers
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