SCULPTURE

Humanities 121 : Art Apreciation

What is Sculpture?
• Comes from the with Latin word “sculpture”
which means to carve.
• Refers to the creation of 3-Dimensional
figures, forms constructed to represent a
natural or imaginary shape.
• Carved, assembled, constructed, fired,
welded, molded, or cast and its final forms
are often painted
SCULPTOR – a person who creates
sculptures
Sculptural Modeling Techniques
• Subtractive – unwanted materials are
removed.
(Ex. Carving)
• Additive – construction of a figure by
putting together.
(Ex. Modeling, Casting, Construction)
Carving
• a subtractive
processinvolves
cutting or chipping
away a shape from
a mass of stone,
wood, or other hard
material.
• Wood, stone, and
ivory , chisel or
sharp tools
Modeling
• An additive process
• Building the form using highly plastic
material such as clay or wax
Casting
• Additive process ; Sculptures that are cast
are made from a material that is melted
down—usually a metal—that is then
poured into a mold. The mold is allowed to
cool, thereby hardening the metal, usually
bronze.
Construction
• Constructed sculpture - forms are built
from materials such as wood, paper,
string, sheet metal, and wire.
• Welding, gluing, nailing materials together
Types of Sculpture
• Relief - carved with flat background, from
only one piece of material.
Bas Relief - Slightly raised sculptures.

High Relief - are carved to project more than

half of their thickness to an almost round
appearance,but also protruding from flat
surfaces
 Parthenon
Reliefs (c.446-430
BCE), Acropolis
Museum (high relief)

Bass Relief
High Relief
Full Round Sculpture (Free-
Standing)
• It inhibits three dimensional space in the
same way what living things do
• Can be seen from all sides
Characteristics of the Materials use
in Sculpture
• Stone
• Wood
• Terra Cotta
• Bronze
• Stone- hard and durable,
weather and fire resistant ,
heavy and durable
a) Basalt and Diorite - (black &
hard)
b) Marble - finely graine, with
crystalline sparkle
c) Granite – tough, coarse-
grained
d) Limestone – softer
• Wood can be carved,
scraped, drilled and
polished, laminated
and bent.
• Lighter and easier to
carved than stone
• Different woods have
different hardness and
grain,

Carved pulpit of
San Agustin Church
• Terra Cotta - which means “baked earth” ,
made by firing clay
• Bronze – solid and too expensive.
• Metal - cutting metals with shears and
snips, by firing and hammering metals
Lorenzo Ghiberti, Virgin and
Child

Richard the Lionheart (Carlo

Marochetti, 1860)
Sculptural Concerns
• Pictorial Sculpture – the artist is more
concerned with details than anything else
• Sculpturesque Sculpture- more
concerned with the medium / materials
used
• Built-up Sculpture- the artist is very
much concerned with the medium /
materials used but also with details.