Sculpture is the art of working hard or plastic materials into three dimensional objects, whether freestanding, in relief on a surface, or as an environment surrounding the viewer. Four core techniques define the craft: carving, a subtractive process cutting material away from a solid mass such as stone, wood, ivory or bone; modeling, an additive process building up a shape from a soft plastic material such as clay, wax or plaster; casting, in which a mold is made and a liquid material such as molten metal is poured into it; and, as a twentieth century addition, constructing or assembling, in which artists bend, weld, bolt or otherwise join a variety of materials and found objects, a technique that grew out of Pablo Picasso's Cubist constructions made from scrap materials and fed into later movements such as Constructivism. The earliest carved forms are thought to have been simple figures scratched into rock surfaces, and clay has been shaped into sculptural and ceramic form since the earliest periods of human craft. Across its long history sculpture has moved from small portable figures and relief carving toward monumental freestanding works in stone and bronze, and in the modern era toward constructed and assembled forms using industrial and found materials.
Facts
MediumHard or plastic materials, among them stone, wood, clay, wax, bone, ivory and cast metal, shaped through carving, modeling, casting or, in modern practice, constructing and assembling. 1 Signature TechniqueCarving, the removal of material, and modelling, the addition of material such as clay, in stone, metal, ceramics, wood and other materials; casting later extended this by pouring liquid metal or glass into a mould. 2 Place of OriginGermany; the earliest known sculpture, the Lowenmensch, a roughly 30cm anthropomorphic lion-human figure carved from woolly mammoth ivory found in the Hohlenstein Stadel, is dated to about 35,000 to 40,000 years before the present. 2 Notable ExampleThe Dying Gaul, also called the Capitoline Gaul, a Roman marble copy of a Hellenistic bronze original from the late 3rd century BC. 2 Connections
Associated With
Assemblage, Art Forms Sculpture's own deepened description names constructing and assembling as a fourth core sculptural technique, alongside carving, modeling and casting.
Source Assemblage (Britannica)
direct carving is a technique of the sculpture art form.
lost wax casting is a technique of the sculpture art form.
Wood Carving, Art Forms Wood carving is one of the oldest sculptural techniques, historically understood as a branch of the broader art of sculpture.
Expressed In
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Movements
Dada, Movements Duchamp's readymades and Arp's reliefs are the movement's primary surviving object-based works, closest among this atlas's art forms to sculpture.
Source Tate
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Practices
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Practitioners
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Works In This Form
Equestrian bronze statue of Peter the Great.
David, Works Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Fountain, Works Museums generally class Fountain as a readymade rather than label it plainly a sculpture; the atlas's own Sculpture description already accounts for this twentieth century expansion of the medium through assemblage and found objects.
Source Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917/1964 (SFMOMA)
Naturalistic bronze and terracotta head sculpture from the Yoruba city of Ife.
Chryselephantine cult statue, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Roman commemorative relief-carved column.
Prehistoric limestone figurine.
Sumerian carved alabaster ritual vessel.
Large ancient Roman marble vase, a copy of a Greek original.
Sources
1. Tate
Tate, United KingdomArt Terms: Sculpture
Three-dimensional art made by one of four basic processes: carving, modelling, casting, constructing
- Movements: Dada
- Movements: Futurism, Art Terms: Futurism
- Movements: Constructivism, Art Terms: Constructivism
- Expressed In: Futurism, Art Terms: Futurism
- Expressed In: Constructivism, Art Terms: Constructivism
View the Source 2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationSculpture, opening section and Metal section
Durable sculptural processes originally used carving (the removal of material) and modelling (the addition of material, as clay), in stone, metal, ceramics, wood and other materials
Sculpture, Prehistoric periods, Europe section
The 30 cm tall Lowenmensch found in the Hohlenstein Stadel area of Germany is an anthropomorphic lion-human figure carved from woolly mammoth ivory. It has been dated to about 35-40,000 BP.
Sculpture, Introduction section
Dying Gaul, or The Capitoline Gaul...a Roman marble copy of a Hellenistic work of the late 3rd century BCE
- Practitioners: Marcel Duchamp
- Practitioners: Hans Arp
- Movements: High Renaissance, High Renaissance, Wikipedia summary, expressed-in sculpture
Associated With: Metalwork, Benin Bronzes, The works section
The metal pieces were made using lost-wax casting and are considered among the best African sculptures made using this technique.
- Works In This Form: Venus de Milo
- Works In This Form: Discobolus
- Works In This Form: Nefertiti Bust
- Works In This Form: Winged Victory of Samothrace
- Works In This Form: Terracotta Army
- Works In This Form: Aztec Sun Stone
- Works In This Form: Laoöcon and His Sons
View the Source Gardner's Art Through the Ages
Fred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner), Cengage Learning- chapter on the history and techniques of sculpture
- Practitioners: Michelangelo, chapter on the High Renaissance, section on Michelangelo
- Works In This Form: David, chapter on the High Renaissance, section on Michelangelo
- Movements: Renaissance, chapters on the Italian Renaissance
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917/1964 (SFMOMA)
San Francisco Museum of Modern ArtWorks In This Form: FountainView the Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.- Movements: Neoclassicism, Neoclassical Art
- Expressed In: Neoclassicism, Neoclassical Art
- Practices: Umberto Boccioni, Umberto Boccioni
- Practices: Vladimir Tatlin, Vladimir Tatlin
View the Source Assemblage (Britannica)
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the two basic sculpting techniques?
Sculpture is made either by carving, removing material to reveal a form, or by modeling and casting, shaping a soft material and often casting it in a harder one.
Sculpture is made either by carving, removing material such as stone or wood to reveal a form, or by modeling and casting, building up or shaping a plastic material such as clay or wax and often casting the result in bronze or another durable medium. Assemblage and welding add a third approach, joining prefabricated or found materials rather than carving or casting them.
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