SCULPTURE

What is sculpture?
Is the act, process, or art of carving, cutting or
otherwise processing plastic, stone metal,
wood or any hard, solid material into works of
art.
Oldest form of art, many sculptural works
have been found dating back to a time for
which there is no written history
 Prehistoric sculpture
Sculpture begins in the Stone Age. Exactly when, we don't know. The earliest known examples

are the two primitive stone effigies known as The Venus of Berekhat Ram and The Venus of Tan-

Tan. The Venus of Berekhat Ram (dating from c.230,000 BCE or earlier) is a basaltic figurine

made during the Acheulian Period, which was discovered on the Golan Heights. The Venus of

Tan-Tan(c.200,000 BCE or earlier) is a quartzite figurine from the same period.

If these objects are pre-sculptural forms, the earliest prehistoric sculpture proper emerged

around 35,000 BCE in the form of carvings of animals, birds, and therianthropic figures, made

during the Lower Perigordian/Aurignacian Period and discovered in the caves of Vogelherd,

Hohle Fels, and Hohlenstein-Stadel, in the Swabian Jura, Germany. The earliest figurative

sculpture is theivory carving known as the Lion Man of the Hohlenstein Stadel (38,000 BCE).
 Another early type of Stone Age sculpture are the miniature obese figurines
called Venuses: such as the Venuses of Willendorf, Kostenky, Monpazier, Dolni
Vestonice, Moravany, Brassempouy, and Gagarino. Made from materials as varied
as mammoth bone, ceramic clay and bone ash, as well as various types of stone
like steatite, oolitic limestone, serpentine, and volcanic rock, these venus figures
have been located in sites across Europe, from Russia to Spain. Anthropologists
believe they may have been used in fertility rituals.
 Types of sculpture
Relief or relievo rilievo
Is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo to raise. To
create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpture materials
has been raised above the background plane
 Bas-relief or low relief
Has a very low degree of relief from the base. Is
a type of sculpture that has less depth to the
faces and figures that they actually have,
when measured proportionally
 High relief sculpture
Where in general more than half the mass of the
sculpted figure projects from the background,
indeed the most prominent elements of the
composition.
 Sunk relief is largely restricted to the art of
ancient Egypt where it is very common,
becoming after the armana period.
 Counter relief
Where an image is fully modeled in a negative
manner. The images goes into the surface, so
that when impressed on wax it gives on
impression in normal relief.