A sculptor is a master who turns cold and lifeless pieces of rock into works of art. How did a person manage to tame stone, clay, wax, wood, metal and other materials, give them volume and shape, embody images, movement, grace in them? How can we learn this today? Everything in more detail in our article.
First works
From lat. sculpo - I carve, carve - sculpture - this is one of the types of fine art whose works have a three-dimensional shape and are made of plastic or hard materials. Unlike painting, here the movement is not so dynamic, it is conveyed in a different way - with the help of volume. An important factor is processing - the sculptor must calculate in advance how light will fall on the plane and face at different times of the day, etc. Even a minor mistake can kill a piece.
The first sculptures in the world appeared long before rock painting, before people began to build homes. Ancient tribes sculpted clay figurines; in ancient Egypt, sculptures were part of religious rites. Then each dead person had his own statue. It was believed that at night the soul leaves her, and with the rising of the sun returns again.
Stone sculptures as a form of art appeared only in Ancient Greece - local craftsmen depicted emperors and inhabitants of Olympus. The level of skill was so high that many of them have survived to this day.
Types and genres
Stone sculptures have many classifications by type of relief, purpose, method of production and execution. The main genres include the following:
- domestic;
- historical;
- portrait;
- mythological;
- allegorical;
- animalistic;
- symbolic.
The main types of sculpture include round sculpture (where the statue is surrounded by free space) and relief (where the image is partially immersed in stone). There are three types of relief - bas-relief (the sculpture is visible less than half), high relief (half the sculpture is visible) and counter-relief (the image is buried at the base).
Depending on the destination, sculptures are monumental (monuments), monumental and decorative (sculptures in fountains and parks) and easel (not dependent on the environment).
By the method of artistic expression distinguish:
- volumetric construction;
- sculpting;
- silhouette design;
- development of texture and color.
Making sculptures from stone and clay
Depending on the type of material used, the sculpture can be obtained in several ways:
- plastic (building soft material);
- sculpting (cutting off excess);
- casting (when liquid metal is poured into the finished form).
A stone sculpture is the most laborious, as it requires remarkable physical strength and enormous patience.
Before starting work on a plastic statue, the sculptor performs a drawing, mathematically calculates the center of gravity and proportion. Then he sculpts the model from wet clay in order to minimize the predicted final result. Later he begins to work on the work itself: it establishes a steel base for the future statue, for which no detail of the statue should go; makes the base of wire and bundles, and gradually, framing the base with clay, leads the sculpture to the result that was originally intended.
