Sculpture is an important form of public art. A collection of sculpture in a garden setting can be called a sculpture garden. One of the most common purposes of sculpture is in some form of association with religion. Cult images are common in many cultures, though they are often not the colossal statues of deities which characterized ancient Greek art , like the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. The actual cult images in the innermost sanctuaries of Egyptian temples , of which none have survived, were evidently rather small, even in the largest temples.
The same is often true in Hinduism , where the very simple and ancient form of the lingam is the most common. Buddhism 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, years ago.
In archaeology 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; [3] 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 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. The Mississippian culture 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, years in Greece, China and Mesoamerica, and many collections were available on semi-public display long before the modern museum 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 figurines , most often in ceramics, are as popular today though strangely neglected by modern and Contemporary art as they were in the Rococo , or in ancient Greece when Tanagra figurines 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 and finds from the tomb of Tutankhamun. Portrait sculpture began in Egypt, where the Narmer Palette shows a ruler of the 32nd century BCE, and Mesopotamia , where we have 27 surviving statues of Gudea , who ruled Lagash c.
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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. Rulers are typically the only people given portraits in Pre-Columbian cultures, beginning with the Olmec colossal heads of about 3, 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. 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 and Islamic art , and are very important in most Eurasian traditions, where motifs such as the palmette 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 or other types of greenstone were used in China, Olmec Mexico, and Neolithic Europe , 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. The materials used in sculpture are diverse, changing throughout history. The classic materials, with outstanding durability, are metal, especially bronze , stone and pottery, with wood, bone and antler less durable but cheaper options.
Precious materials such as gold , silver , jade , and ivory are often used for small luxury works, and sometimes in larger ones, as in chryselephantine statues. 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 painted , but commonly lose their paint to time, or restorers. Many different painting techniques have been used in making sculpture, including tempera , oil painting , gilding , house paint, aerosol, enamel and sandblasting. Many sculptors seek new ways and materials to make art.
One of Pablo Picasso 's most famous sculptures included bicycle parts. Alexander Calder and other modernists made spectacular use of painted steel. Since the s, 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 , sand sculpture , and gas sculpture , is deliberately short-lived.
Recent sculptors have used stained glass , 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 sculpture 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.
Petroglyphs also called rock engravings are perhaps the earliest form: Monumental sculpture covers large works, and architectural sculpture, which is attached to buildings.
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Hardstone carving is the carving for artistic purposes of semi-precious stones such as jade , agate , onyx , rock crystal , sard or carnelian , and a general term for an object made in this way. Alabaster or mineral gypsum 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 rings. 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.
Bronze and related copper alloys are the oldest and still the most popular metals for cast 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 mold. Their strength and lack of brittleness ductility is an advantage when figures in action are to be created, especially when compared to various ceramic or stone materials see marble sculpture for several examples.
Casting is a group of manufacturing processes by which a liquid material bronze, copper, glass, aluminum, iron is usually poured into a mold, 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, [9] 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 , concrete , plaster and clay. 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 BCE.
Welding is a process where different pieces of metal are fused together to create different shapes and designs. 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 together, 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 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 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, with considerable difficulty; the Roman Lycurgus Cup is all but unique. Kiln casting glass involves heating chunks of glass in a kiln until they are liquid and flow into a waiting mold below it in the kiln. More recent techniques involve chiseling and bonding plate glass with polymer silicates and UV light. 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.
Stamps and moulds were used by most ancient civilizations, from ancient Rome and Mesopotamia to China.
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Wood carving 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. 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 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 ". Typically a layer of gesso or plaster is applied to the wood, and then the paint is applied to that.
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 , this has affected the status of sculpture itself. Goldsmiths and jewellers, dealing with precious materials and often doubling as bankers, belonged to powerful guilds and had considerable status, often holding civic office. Many sculptors also practised in other arts; Andrea del Verrocchio also painted, and Giovanni Pisano , Michelangelo, and Jacopo Sansovino were architects. 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 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.
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. Aniconism remained restricted to Judaism , which did not accept figurative sculpture until the 19th century, [18] before expanding to Early Christianity , which initially accepted large sculptures.
In Christianity and Buddhism, sculpture became very significant. Christian Eastern Orthodoxy has never accepted monumental sculpture, and Islam 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. Many forms of Protestantism also do not approve of religious sculpture. There has been much iconoclasm of sculpture from religious motives, from the Early Christians, the Beeldenstorm of the Protestant Reformation to the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan by the Taliban.
The earliest undisputed examples of sculpture belong to the Aurignacian culture , 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 , the people of this culture developed finely-crafted stone tools, manufacturing pendants, bracelets, ivory beads, and bone-flutes, as well as three-dimensional figurines.
With the beginning of the Mesolithic in Europe figurative sculpture greatly reduced, [25] 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 from the European Iron Age and the Bronze Age Trundholm sun chariot. Venus of Willendorf , c. Magdalenian Horse , c. The Trundholm sun chariot , perhaps — BCE; this side is gilded , the other is "dark".
Venus of Laussel c. The Protoliterate period in Mesopotamia , dominated by Uruk , saw the production of sophisticated works like the Warka Vase and cylinder seals. The Guennol Lioness is an outstanding small limestone figure from Elam of about — BCE, part human and part lioness. Many masterpieces have also been found at the Royal Cemetery at Ur c.
From the many subsequent periods before the ascendency of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 10th century BCE Mesopotamian art survives in a number of forms: It comes from the 18th or 19th centuries BCE, and may also be moulded.
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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 has an outstanding collection, including the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal and the Lachish reliefs 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. Part of the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal , c. The monumental sculpture 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 , 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.
However, there as elsewhere the convention is not used for minor figures shown engaged in some activity, such as the captives and corpses. Very conventionalized portrait statues appear from as early as Dynasty II, before 2, BCE, [38] and with the exception of the art of the Amarna period of Ahkenaten , [39] 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 pharaohs 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 , a typical scheme, though here exceptionally large.
Most larger sculpture survives from Egyptian temples or tombs; by Dynasty IV — BCE at the latest the idea of the Ka statue 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 heads , 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 figures. Facsimile of the Narmer Palette , c. The formality of the pose is reduced by the queen's arm round her husband. Tutankhamun's mask , c. The Younger Memnon c. Osiris on a lapis lazuli pillar in the middle, flanked by Horus on the left, and Isis on the right, 22nd dynasty, Louvre.
The ka statue provided a physical place for the ka to manifest. Block statue of Pa-Ankh-Ra, ship master, bearing a statue of Ptah. Late Period , c. 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 and Mycenaean cultures developed sculpture further, under influence from Syria and elsewhere, but it is in the later Archaic period from around 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 ". 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.
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 pediments were added to temples , including the Parthenon in Athens, where the remains of the pediment of around using figures in the round were fortunately used as infill for new buildings after the Persian sack in BCE, and recovered from the s on in fresh unweathered condition.
Lifesize New York Kouros , c. Peplos Kore , c. Late Archaic warrior from the east pediment of the Temple of Aphaea , c. 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 in reliefs, and soon after in statues, to about 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 since have revealed the largest group of remains, from about , of which many are in the Louvre. The "High Classical" period lasted only a few decades from about to , 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 executed by a team led by the most famous ancient Greek sculptor Phidias , active from about —, who was in his own day more famous for his colossal chryselephantine Statue of Zeus at Olympia c.
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 Hellenistic period is conventionally dated from the death of Alexander the Great in BCE, and ending either with the final conquest of the Greek heartlands by Rome in 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. The group called the Farnese Bull , possibly a 2nd-century marble original, is still larger and more complex, [52]. 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 figurines , 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 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 was dominant in the courts of most of the Near East, and some of Central Asia , and increasingly being adopted by European elites, especially in Italy, where Greek colonies 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 in modern Lebanon, was probably made there at the start of the period by expatriate Greek artists for a Hellenized Persian governor. The Riace Bronzes , very rare bronze figures recovered from the sea, c. Hermes and the Infant Dionysos , possibly an original by Praxiteles , 4th century. The Winged Victory of Samothrace , c. Venus de Milo , c. Leochares , Apollo Belvedere , c.
Sculpture - Wikipedia
Roman copy after a Greek bronze original of — BCE. Early Roman art was influenced by the art of Greece and that of the neighbouring Etruscans , themselves greatly influenced by their Greek trading partners. An Etruscan speciality was near life size tomb effigies in terracotta , usually lying on top of a sarcophagus lid propped up on one elbow in the pose of a diner in that period. As the expanding Roman Republic began to conquer Greek territory, at first in Southern Italy and then the entire Hellenistic world except for the Parthian 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.
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 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 or the later mausolea outside the city.
The famous bronze head supposedly of Lucius Junius Brutus is very variously dated, but taken as a very rare survival of Italic style under the Republic, in the preferred medium of bronze. 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 columns with continuous narrative reliefs winding around them, of which those commemorating Trajan CE and Marcus Aurelius by 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 and the base of the Column of Antoninus Pius , [60] Campana reliefs 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 , Gonzaga Cameo and the " Great Cameo of France ".
After moving through a late 2nd-century "baroque" phase, [63] 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 of in Rome, which combines sections in the new style with roundels in the earlier full Greco-Roman style taken from elsewhere, and the Four Tetrarchs c. Ernst Kitzinger 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 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 , and very small sculpture, especially in ivory, was continued by Christians, building on the style of the consular diptych.
Etruscan sarcophagus , 3rd century BCE. Bust of Emperor Claudius , c. Commodus dressed as Hercules , c. The Four Tetrarchs , c. The cameo gem known as the " Great Cameo of France ", c. The Early Christians were opposed to monumental religious sculpture, though continuing Roman traditions in portrait busts and sarcophagus 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 civilizations of the Migration period , as seen in the objects found in the 6th-century burial treasure at Sutton Hoo , and the jewellery of Scythian art and the hybrid Christian and animal style productions of Insular art.
Following the continuing Byzantine tradition, Carolingian art revived ivory carving, often in panels for the treasure bindings of grand illuminated manuscripts , as well as crozier heads and other small fittings. Byzantine art , though producing superb ivory reliefs and architectural decorative carving, never returned to monumental sculpture, or even much small sculpture in the round.
This gradually spread; by the late 10th and 11th century there are records of several apparently life-size sculptures in Anglo-Saxon churches, probably of precious metal around a wooden frame, like the Golden Madonna of Essen. No Anglo-Saxon example has survived, [67] and survivals of large non-architectural sculpture from before 1, are exceptionally rare.
Much the finest is the Gero Cross , of —, which is a crucifix , which was evidently the commonest type of sculpture; Charlemagne had set one up in the Palatine Chapel in Aachen around These continued to grow in popularity, especially in Germany and Italy. The rune stones of the Nordic world, the Pictish stones of Scotland and possibly the high cross reliefs of Christian Great Britain, were northern sculptural traditions that bridged the period of Christianization. Archangel Ivory , —, Constantinople. Late Carolingian ivory panel, probably meant for a book-cover.
The Harbaville Triptych , Byzantine ivory , midth century. Detail of Christ on the Gero Cross , Cologne —, the first great example of the revival of large sculpture. From about 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 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 with figures and often narrative scenes.
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. 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 by Nicholas of Verdun.
The bronze doors, a triumphal column and other fittings at Hildesheim Cathedral , the Gniezno Doors , and the doors of the Basilica di San Zeno in Verona are other substantial survivals. The aquamanile , 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 is an unusually large ivory crucifix , with complex carving including many figures of prophets and others, which has been attributed to one of the relatively few artists whose name is known, Master Hugo , who also illuminated manuscripts.
Like many pieces it was originally partly coloured. The Lewis chessmen are well-preserved examples of small ivories, of which many pieces or fragments remain from croziers , plaques, pectoral crosses and similar objects. The Gothic period is essentially defined by Gothic architecture , 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. These trends were continued in the west portal at Rheims 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 — and his son Giovanni 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 —68 , the Fontana Maggiore in Perugia , and Giovanni's pulpit in Pistoia of Tilman Riemenschneider , 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 so large they had to be moved outside the church.
By the 15th century there was an industry exporting Nottingham alabaster altar reliefs in groups of panels over much of Europe for economical parishes who could not afford stone retables. 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. West portal of Chartres Cathedral c. South portal of Chartres Cathedral c. West portal at Rheims Cathedral , Annunciation group.
The Bamberg Horseman , near life-size stone equestrian statue , the first of this kind since antiquity. Siege of the Castle of Love on a mirror-case in the Louvre , —; the ladies are losing. Claus Sluter , David and a prophet from the Well of Moses. Section of a panelled altarpiece with Resurrection of Christ , English, —90, Nottingham alabaster with remains of colour. Renaissance sculpture proper is often taken to begin with the famous competition for the doors of the Florence Baptistry in , from which the trial models submitted by the winner, Lorenzo Ghiberti , and Filippo Brunelleschi 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 to , and are dazzlingly confident classicizing compositions with varied depths of relief allowing extensive backgrounds. 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 , with the Neapolitan 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. His iconic David 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. Lorenzo Ghiberti , panel of the Sacrifice of Isaac from the Florence Baptistry doors; oblique view here.
Luca della Robbia , detail of Cantoria , c. Donatello , David c. Donatello , Judith and Holofernes , c. Francesco Laurana , female bust cast. Verrocchio , Doubting Thomas , —83, Orsanmichele , Florence. Michelangelo , David , c. Michelangelo , Dying Slave , c. 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 in Florence, next to Michelangelo's David.
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Baccio Bandinelli took over the project of Hercules and Cacus from the master himself, but it was little more popular than it is now, and maliciously compared by Benvenuto Cellini to "a sack of melons", though it had a long-lasting effect in apparently introducing relief panels on the pedestal of statues. Like other works of his and other Mannerists it removes far more of the original block than Michelangelo would have done. Small bronze figures for collector's cabinets , often mythological subjects with nudes, were a popular Renaissance form at which Giambologna , originally Flemish 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 , often of two intertwined figures, that were interesting from all angles. Stucco overdoor at Fontainebleau , probably designed by Primaticcio , who painted the oval inset, s or s. Benvenuto Cellini , Perseus with the head of Medusa , — Giambologna , Samson Slaying a Philistine , about 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, , or those in the Gardens of Versailles were a Baroque speciality.
The Baroque style was perfectly suited to sculpture, with Gian Lorenzo Bernini the dominating figure of the age in works such as The Ecstasy of St Theresa — Artists saw themselves as in the classical tradition, but admired Hellenistic and later Roman sculpture, rather than that of the more "Classical" periods as they are seen today. The Protestant Reformation brought an almost total stop to religious sculpture in much of Northern Europe, and though secular sculpture, especially for portrait busts and tomb monuments , continued, the Dutch Golden Age has no significant sculptural component outside goldsmithing.
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