What is Sculpture – Definition of the Concept

Definition of

Sculpture

The sculpture is a artistic discipline which consists of creating figures from actions like sculpt either cut different materials. The term, from the Latin word sculptureis also used to name the construction site resulting from this work.

The individual who makes sculptures is called sculptor. Your task is to create volumes that allow you to represent a image or convey an idea. There are sculptures made of stone, clay, wood, bronze, gold and other materials.

The sculptures can have a magical or ritual purpose. In those cases, the construction site it goes beyond aesthetics, since various meanings are attributed to it. Currently, in any case, sculpture is usually considered as an artistic work, without any other symbolic charge.

Article Topics

  • Origins of sculpture
  • Paleolithic Venus
  • metal in sculpture
  • The terracotta warriors and the moai
  • The David, an iconic sculpture
  • Related Topics Tree

Origins of sculpture

The first sculptures were made in the Prehistory, hundreds of thousands of years ago. At that time they were produced with stones or bones. Over time man began to use other materials.

If we look specifically at the European continent, the oldest manifestations of sculpture can be found in the Lower Paleolithic, that is, in the first period from the first stage of the Stone Age, also called the Paleolithic period. In that remote time, the human being used a mineral called flint, which cut by means of percussion against another rock. Later, he began to use engraving, as well as relief, a technique that he practiced both on stone and on bone of animal origin.

It can serve you: Percussion

Paleolithic Venus

Prehistoric sculpture is often associated with exuberant human figures that were created around thirty thousand years ago. It’s about the famous paleolithic venuses, a series of female statues that supposedly exalted fertility from an artistic point of view. Two of the exponents The most important of this group are the Venus of Lespugue and the Venus of Willendorf.

Already in the Upper Paleolithic, the last of the Paleolithic periods, objects abounded engravings or carvings that at first were relatively primitive, since they went from having decorations of little complexity to representations of animals adapted to the surface of the bone. Another very common material back then was clay; in the Near East, India, China and Egypt, where some of the oldest examples of sculpture come from, there were pottery kilns four millennia BC.

See also: Fertility

metal in sculpture

Undoubtedly, the sculpture took a leap when the human being understood how to work the metal. First of all, this advance took place with bronze, and later the techniques for manipulating iron appeared, thanks to which more effective tools arose, as well as materials for the works themselves.

Building a work in clay and then casting it in bronze is a process that dates back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, but is still used today.

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The terracotta warriors and the moai

Due to their characteristics, many sculptures have remained in the history and they are famous worldwide. The terracotta warriorsFor example, there are more than 8,000 sculptures that were created about two hundred years before Christ and buried next to the Chinese emperor. qin shi huang. Each of these figures, developed in life size, has its own features.

In the Easter IslandOn the other hand, there are moais: immense sculptures that were carved over several centuries by the aborigines. There are moƔis that weigh more than ten tons.

See also: Insular

The David, an iconic sculpture

at the beginning of century XVI, Miguel Angel created his most popular sculpture: the Davidwhich shows the biblical king before fighting against Goliath.

This figure, found in the city Florence, it measures more than five meters and is a Renaissance jewel.

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