Sculpture - what is it? Famous sculptures

The desire for beauty, expressed in art, is perhaps the only thing that distinguishes man from an animal. From the earliest times a man tried to create something beautiful, in the intervals between hunting and survival, bringing out patterns on the walls of his cave. With the development of mankind, art developed, which assumed new and new forms. One of the main types of fine arts is sculpture. What is sculpture and what kinds of it exist - this article will tell about it.

The main object of sculpture is a person, although it can also depict animals or any other objects. Depending on what material is used, the appropriate methods of their processing are selected. It can be modeling, forging, chasing or casting.

Before considering any concept, it should be given a concrete definition. What is sculpture and what are its characteristics? The difficulty is that it is not so easy to answer this question unambiguously. However, we will try to understand it.

Definition: "What is a sculpture?" The variety of options

Any concept or phenomenon is treated differently. The reason for this is that every art critic looks at the problem from his angle. Therefore, each develops its own meaning of the concept of "sculpture". What is sculpture, you can learn from various explanatory dictionaries.

According to the explanatory dictionary of Efremova, sculpture is the art of creating voluminous (relief) images with the help of modeling, cutting or casting.

In the explanatory dictionary Ushakov you can find the following definition: "Sculpture is the art of making bulky or convex images - statues, bas-reliefs and stuff."

However, it should be noted that all sources agree that sculpture is a special kind of fine art. And in this doubt certainly not necessary.

Sculpture. What is a sculpture?

The term itself comes from the Latin word "sculptura", which literally translates as "sculpting", or "carving". By the way, the term "sculpting" is often used as a synonym for the word "sculpture".

Sergey Sobolev, a talented young artist, described it very well: "this is a sphere of feelings connected with form." The basis of any sculpture should be exactly the form, the ancient language of which is accessible and understandable to any person.

History of sculpture

The roots of this art form go back to antiquity, in the era of the Paleolithic, then it was her first works. Sculptures in the form of images of women or different animals, found on the site of numerous Paleolithic sites in Western Europe - a vivid confirmation of this. In the Neolithic age, the diversity of sculptural monuments expanded even more.

Of course, this type of art was most developed in the era of ancient Greece. It is sculpture that becomes one of the main forms of expression of ancient Greek philosophy, based on the personality of a person - harmoniously developed both spiritually and physically. A myriad of statues of gods, mythical heroes and warriors was performed by masters of Ancient Hellas, for whom the work of the whole life turned out to be sculpture. What is a sculpture in the understanding of an ancient Greek master? This is primarily flexibility, plasticity and organic forms, based on the finest anatomical details. Among such great masters of ancient Greek sculpture can be identified Phidias, Myron, Lysippos, Praxitel and others.

A new stage in the development of sculpture in the XV-XVI centuries, in the Renaissance, which relied on ancient traditions. The center of the Renaissance sculpture was Italy, among the great sculptors of the time - Michelangelo, Donatello, Verrocchio and other creators.

Great attention was also paid to Soviet sculpture by Soviet ideologists. It became an effective tool for propagating the ideas of Soviet socialism. The main feature of Soviet sculpture can be considered its monumentality. Majestic steles, massive monuments and thousands of monuments to the communist leaders left us a legacy of Soviet sculpture.

In modern sculpture, the image (object) comes to the fore, but the choice of color, texture and material. It is color that becomes almost the main tool of artistic expressiveness in modern sculpture.

The main types of sculptures

The main types of sculpture are:

• Round sculpture (actually, statues and busts);
• Relief sculpture (bas-reliefs and high reliefs);
• Easel sculpture;
• Monumental sculpture.

Also, some specific types of this art are distinguished: miniature sculpture, kinetic, ice, park and others. According to the genre, the sculpture is portrait, everyday, historical, symbolic.

The process of making sculptures

Making sculptures is not an easy task, requiring certain skills and hard work. As soon as the sculptor has the idea of a work, he begins to embody it from the production of a reduced-size model. Only when the layout is completely ready, you can go to the sculpture itself.

To sculpt the statue you need a foundation and a steel frame. Then the artist begins to cover this frame with clay until he receives a sculpture close to his model in appearance. In doing so, he uses special tools for modeling - stacks, as well as his own hands. It is important to ensure a constant moistening of the material during molding, so that it does not begin to crack.

When molding is finished, the sculptor makes an exact impression of his creation from a material that is stronger than clay. After this, based on the impression, the sculpture can be made from any other material - stone, steel or bronze. It is worth noting that no great sculptural work can not do without preliminaries and making casts. Although in the history of sculpture there were masters who worked immediately with the source material. One of these was the great creator Michelangelo.

Sculpture as decoration of parks

One of the forms of sculpture is the park sculpture, the traditions of which have a centuries-old history. It is difficult to imagine a beautiful park or a city garden without sculptural ornaments. The tradition to decorate the gardens with sculptures was established by the ancient Greeks. It is difficult to imagine the gardens of Ancient Rome without statuary statues of gods or brave warriors.

In the XVII century, the center for the manufacture of sculptures for parks and gardens is Venice. Entire parties bought sculptures for their private parks notable people from Austria, Poland and Russia. Park sculpture at that time became an important element of the decoration of St. Petersburg, which was being actively built. The most outstanding Venetian master can be called Pietro Baratta, whose works can still be seen in the Summer Garden of St. Petersburg or in the Tsarskoe Selo Reserve.

Especially popular in modern parks is the so-called topiary sculpture - this is the creation of real masterpieces from living plants - trees or bushes.

The most famous world sculptures

Famous sculptures of the world have gained popularity due to their peculiarities. We bring to your attention the top five most famous world sculptures.

1. The most famous of the ancient sculptures is the statue of the goddess Aphrodite, also known as Venus de Milo. The cult statue of marble was made in the second century BC and survived to this day. Today, this two-meter sculpture can be seen in the special Louvre gallery.

2. The highest sculpture is a statue of Buddha Vairochan in China (Henan Province). The total height of the monument is 158 meters, works on its erection were completed in 2002. The sculpture is made of cast copper, and the total cost of this project was about 55 million dollars.

3. The most mysterious sculpture is the statue of Moai on Easter Island. Scientists suggest that the statues are the work of the masters of ancient Polynesia and blurryly date back to the first millennium of our era.

4. The most patriotic sculpture is the world-famous Statue of Liberty - a symbol of the American people. It is also the second highest in the world.

5. The most golden sculpture is a statue of Buddha, located in Thailand, in the temple of Wat Trimit. Three-meter sculpture is unique in that it is completely made of solid gold.