History of Sculpture and other 3D media, sculptors and artists

Sculpture is one of the most enduring of artforms. During the Ice Age hunters and sculptors carved portable images of important themes in their daily lives, the bison and reindeer and another predominant interest - the swelling curves of the female form, emphasizing the fertility.. Perhaps the most famous of early sculptures is the so-called Venus of Willendorf only about 120mm high found in Austria, and dating from more than 25,000 years ago.

The first civilization to establish a recognizable artistic sculptural style was Egypt. This style follows a convention, by which the feet, legs and head of each human figure are shown in profile but the torso, shoulders, arms and eye are depicted as if from the front and was well suited to the bas-relief type of murals used to record their history.

Some time after 3000 BC it became the practice in Egypt for seated statues of royal people and distinguished officials to be placed in their tombs. More humble figures were also placed in Egyptian royal tombs, to provide familiar services in the next world. The most colossal sculpture of the ancient world is the Egyptian sphinx.

Greece in the classical period made the innovations which underlies mainstream western tradition in art. Sculptors attempted to reveal the human body, in movement or at rest, exactly as it appears to the eye. Later the Romans built on Greek themes and types of sculpture themselves, but the type of sculpture which the Romans made particularly their own, was the portrait bust.

Early Christian artists used sculpture to illustrate the pain of the Crucifixion or the imagined agonies of Hell.

Meanwhile Asia had the development of Hindu and Buddhist art. In South America another tradition developed prior to Rome, of warriors with massive stone heads, more than two metres in height, square-jawed and usually wearing helmets with ear flaps. Also alongside these traditions are the sculptures of Africa and vibrant African masks.

Romanesque, a word not coined until the 18th century, was first used to describe the architecture of western Europe from about the 9th to 12th century. It became applied by extension to other arts, in particular sculpture.

An important element of the Renaissance was the rediscovery of the realistic free-standing human figure as sculpted in Greece and Rome. From the time of the north porch of Chartres, in the early 13th century, sculptors create entirely believable people in stone - though attached, usually, to the walls of buildings. Gradually these figures begin to be detached.

The term Renaissance Man has come to mean someone with exceptional skills in a wide range of fields of which there are two outstanding candidates for the title: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. The older man, Leonardo, excelled in two entirely different disciplines - experimental science and the visual arts, and Michelangelo created works in the four distinct fields of sculpture, painting, architecture and poetry. Michaelangelo's sculpture of David is one of the most well recognised scu;ptures in the world today.

Ever since the Renaissance, successive generations of artists, sculptors and architects have turned to classical models for inspiration.

During the 18th century a quest for classical authenticity was undertaken with new academic vigour. Archaeological sites such as Pompeii were being excavated and interest was shifting from the Roman part of the classical heritage to the Greek.

Ancient Greek sites in southern Italy (in particular Paestum) and in Sicily begin to be studied in the 1740s. The avant-garde embraced the classical tradition with enthusiasm. Over the next century Greek themes increasingly pervade the decorative arts. Greek porticos and colonnades graced public buildings and Greek refinement became the ideal for neoclassical sculptors and painters.

Tribal art in Africa and Oceania continued to be part of daily life in those regions, but as interst in anthropology along with archaeology developed, especailly during the first half of the 20th C, those arts were further embraced by that same avant garde in Europe.

Other 3D Artworks

Some art work created in three dimensions would normally be considered a craft rather than art. Such works as those in pottery, glass, textiles, jewellery and millinery for example. What takes work from the arena of craft to the next level would be the originality and design features that go beyond function or there might even be no function beyond the visual.