Greatest Sculptors Ever
World's Best Plastic Artists, Stone Masons,
Bronze Casting, Wood Carvers.
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Greatest Sculptors Ever
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The World's Greatest SculptorsContents • Ancient Egyptian
Sculptors • For a guide to plastic
art, see: Art of Sculpture. |
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TYPES OF SCULPTURE PLASTIC ART APPRECIATION |
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Despite the innovation and ingenuity of Egyptian sculptors, stone masons and carvers who established Egyptian Sculpture as early as the late 2nd Dynasty of the Ancient Kingdom of Egypt, they and their eastern Mediterranean neighbours have remained almost completely anonymous. Ancient Greek Sculptors (c.500-100 BCE) Read Greek Sculpture Made Simple (650-27) for an easy explanation of the history and characteristics of plastic art from Ancient Greece, or read our analysis of famous masterpieces like Laocoon and His Sons (42-20 BCE) and "Venus de Milo" (c.100 BCE). Amazingly, despite their country's incredible contribution to the art of sculpture, only a handful of Greek sculptors are known to us by name, and none of their works survive in the original. Phidias
(c.488-431 BCE) Roman Sculptors (c.200 BCE - c.200 CE) Despite the influence of the earlier and highly convivial Etruscan sculpture, Roman sculpture was unidealized, realistic, and generally mediocre. Only its historical reliefs are regarded as exceptional. The mediocrity of its freestanding statues and the like, may account for the fact that almost no sculptors of ancient Rome are known to us. |
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Byzantine Sculptors (c.450-1200) Sculpture in the round was not permitted by the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church based in Constantinople, nor was any form of 3-D representationalism. Thus Byzantine sculptors were limited to reliefs, executed mainly in stone, ivory or soapstone, but unfortunately their individual names are mostly unknown. See also: Medieval Sculpture. Romanesque Sculptors (c.800-1100) Romanesque sculpture describes the 3-D architectural art created in western Europe during roughly the 9th to the 12th century. It was mostly commissioned by monasteries or Monastic Orders. Church architects regularly made available two spaces for Romanesque sculptors: the capitals (tops) of columns, which were commonly decorated with lively biblical scenes; and the semi-circular area of wall between the west door of a church and the arch above it (the tympanum), often used to depict gospel scenes such as the Last Judgement. Restricted by space, Romanesque sculptors tended to make squat, chunky, and angular figures. Significant centres for Romanesque sculptors included (in France): Cluny, Autun, Vezelay, Toulouse and Moissac; (in Italy) Como, Modena, Verona, Ferrara, Parma, Pisa, Lucca and Apulian cities; (in Spain) Leon, Madrid and Santiago de Compostela. For more details, see: Medieval Art (c.450-1400). Gislebertus
(active 1st half 12th century) Gothic sculpture, closely associated with gothic religious architectural art, emerged during the 12th century in the abbeys and cathedrals Northern France. In contrast to the squat Romanesque reliefs and figurative sculpture, Gothic sculptures are tall and thin, very much in keeping with the soaring vertical lines of the new architecture. Archetypal examples include the biblical kings and queens by the triple entrance on the west facade of Chartres Cathedral (1194-1250). Standing on a tiny platform, their bodies are enormously elongated while their faces are realistic and benign, creating a mood of great calmness. The Abbey of St Denis, run by Abbot Suger, pioneered Gothic art. In Italy, Gothic sculptural masterpieces included the Pisa Baptistery pulpit, the Siena pulpit and the Scaliger Tombs in Verona. Between the fall of Rome (c.450 CE) and the mid-13th century (c.1250), there was virtually no statues made as medieval artists focused on sculpting reliefs. Then, during the period of the 'Gothic style' sculpted relief figures began to detach themselves from pillars and walls. Examples of this new statuary include the four figures by the west porch of Reims cathedral, and the unknown emperor or king on horseback (the Bamberg Rider) set high on a platform against one of the walls of Bamberg cathedral. These figures are the precursors of freestanding Italian Renaissance sculpture and its accompanying equestrian statues. North of the Alps, however, the classical forms of Renaissance sculpture were much less popular, and sculptors continued working in a Late Gothic style until the 16th century. Nicola
Pisano (c.1206-1278) |
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Renaissance Sculptors (c.1400-1600) Italian Renaissance Sculpture was marked by a return to classical models, notably the male nude, and a wide range of individual and equestrian statuary. Much of this sculpture in the round was designed as public art to be located in specific public places. This period witnessed the emergence of genius Renaissance sculptors such as Donatello, Michelangelo, and the Mannerist artist Giambologna, and its monuments can be found in Florence, Rome, Venice and most of the churches and cities of Northern Italy. Jacopo
della Quercia (c.1374-1438) Northern Renaissance Sculptors Hans
Multscher (c.1400-1467) Baroque Sculptors (c.1600-1700) Baroque Sculpture was part of the general 17th century Baroque movement of art and architecture, which grew out of the religious political situation of the previous century, triggered by Luther's Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. The dramatic, theatrical, Baroque style was well suited to sculpture, in which Bernini was the outstanding exponent, although Baroque religious sculpture was confined to Catholic areas, as Protestantism turned its back on grandiose religious art. However, statues of secular rulers and nobility became popular throughout Europe. For more, see: Baroque Sculptors. Juan
Martinez Montanes (c.1568-1649) |
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18th Century Sculptors: Rococo and Neoclassical Styles Rococo (flourished c.1715-50) was centred on France in the wake of the death of Louis XIV and the ensuing preeminence of Paris, whose new town houses benefited from the pretty curvaceous shapes of Rococo interior design. Rococo sculpture was best suited to smaller works, notably in porcelain: its larger forms being confined mainly to the Catholic south of Germany, and Austria. A serious form of art based on antique models, Neoclassical sculpture (flourished c.1790-1830) was a reaction against both the melodramatic Baroque and whimsical Rococo styles, and a reflection of the growing scientific (viz. archeological) interest in classical antiquity. Promoted by the great German art historian, Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-68), it attached particular importance to Greek-style forms, whose style was academic, noble and restrained. See also: Neoclassical Sculptors.
Louis-Francois
Roubiliac (1695-1762) The 19th century was rather a watershed for sculpture. Neoclassicism was still active in America, but generally speaking, European sculptors experienced a serious downturn in religious sculpture, and were largely occupied with historical monuments to secular figures like Kings and military leaders. It wasn't until the first decades of the 20th century that new forms and ideas began to emerge. Auguste Rodin was a notable exception from this era. For more, see: 19th Century Sculptors. Horatio Greenough (1805-1852) |
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Modern Sculptors: 20th Century The early years of the 20th century witnessed a revolution in sculpture, thanks to pioneer 20th century sculptors like Brancusi, Picasso, Boccioni and Naum Gabo, and new modernist movements like Cubism, Dada and Surrealism. Abstract forms were fully explored, new materials including "found" objects were used for the first time. Aristide
Maillol (1861-1944) 20th Century: Contemporary Sculptors Replacing modernism with postmodernist art, contemporary sculpture has greatly extended the notion of three-dimensional art. "Found" objects continue to be used widely as well as a whole new range of materials (from foam-rubber to concrete); new 3-D art forms have appeared, like installation art and assemblage; pure abstraction is arguably being superceded by conceptualism (the point behind the artwork), while the idea of representationalism has been extended by new forms of super-realism. Traditional types of classical realism seem to be out of favour, at least artistically, although the value of postmodernist art has recently taken a severe battering, thus raising the possibility of a return to more traditional practices. On balance, however, one feels that contemporary materials and methods in sculpture are here to stay, and that classical realism has lost its appeal. (See also: American Sculptors.) Louise
Bourgeois (1911-2010) TO SEARCH FOR A PARTICULAR SCULPTOR, BROWSE OUR A-Z OF ARTISTS |
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