A sculpture is a three-dimensional, man-made object considered as art. As with all works of art, the medium of sculpture defines the thoughts and emotions of the person inspired to create their art - from highly detailed to free-form design - for private collection or commercial use.
For some the creation of a sculpture flows easily - for others it takes time and often frustration - a reflection of all things we experience.
Children love to create with clay and silly putty, as their mothers allow.
Crop Circle Images
Landscape art is sculpted into crop circles, mazes, labyrinths, and other intricate designs.
Every civilization has found a way molding its destiny just as we are molding our own.
To read more about sculpting, please click on the sculpture.
Rodin's Rodin's The Thinker
There are times to think and times to act ...
Where are you now?
I am creative in many ways, but sculpting is not one of them. My only memories go to fun and laughs with friends during sculpting class in college. Those phallic symbols we made must have come from a Greek lifetime. Frankly, I never got passed a small white freeform figure I created and kept for years. And of course there was the notorious ashtray - which has gone the way of the dinosaur as people give up smoking - but that's another column - the Smoking Gun.
Your have read the title on this column and your brain is beginning to process information that your soul will accept, or delete as superfluous.
Next ... think about something in your life that is an immediate burden.
Before reading further, take a deep breath, close your eyes ... think what a relief it would be if - - - - - is removed (fill in the blanks). Will this burden be lifted?
Pause, as if meditating.
You should receive a Yes or No answer to that which you wish to unburden at this time. Hopefully the truth will be followed by additional messages - images and sounds.
You may find it a relief to release something that is blocking your journey.
Please pay attention. Take 'your' time.
Open your eyes ...
Note the reaction of your emotional body to answers given, which will now playing out in your 3D reality . You have connected with your soul outside the box and are becoming the viewer of your destiny. It is the only way to 'see beyond'.
If you are unable to see clearly - try this again at another time.
Pause ...
Resume reading this column as we take relief in another direction - the art form.
Has your creative side [right-brain] ever been drawn to sculpting? If given the opportunity to create in this manner, what would you create, or would you prefer to allow your vision to come from deep within your soul and develop as you go along?
Today we are going to examine 2 art forms - the Relief aka bas relief and the Frieze, both found in all civilizations with art work reflecting the journeys of the travelers in each timeline.
In the art of sculpture, a relief is an artwork where a modeled form projects out of a flat background. Tensed musculature itself may be seen to be in relief. Depending on the depth involved, it may be termed a bas relief ("low relief") - as seen in numismatics - or it may be a high relief, with much undercutting, rendered almost in the round against its flat background.
Elephant Symbology
Reliefs are a common type of artwork found throughout the world, particularly to decorate monumental buildings, such as temples. The frieze in the classical Corinthian order is often enriched with bas-reliefs. High reliefs may been seen in the pediments of classical temples, e.g. the Parthenon.
Reliefs can be used for a single scene, or ordered into a narrative.
At least two levels of "relief are commonly used and defined. Bas relief (pronounced "bar"), which mean low relief, and Alto-relievo, meaning high. In both cases the images must attach to the backfround.
In "alto relief" the figures are usually near natural depth and the background is more detailed and deeper. Alto-relievo are figures carved out of a tablet that project at least one half of cross-section from the tablet's surface. In the illustration at right, the wall is a simple re-inforcement, with no detail, but frequently the vertical element would be bigger and have detail carved into it. All cultures and periods, where large sculptures were created, used this technique as one of their sculptural options. From ancient times to present, it is to be seen in "monumental sculpture". It is frequently employed as a means of strengthing the integrity of the sculpture only. Frequently some detail is included on the vertical stone.
Bas-relief may show faces and even bodies in natural relief, though usually not.
The backgrounds are always compressed for depth in "bas relief".
Bas-relief is a method of sculpting which entails carving or etching away the surface of a flat piece of stone or metal. The word is derived from the Italian basso rilievo, the literal translation meaning raised contrast. To explain simply it is a sculpture portrayed as a picture. The portrayed image is raised above the background flat surface. For example, if a stone slab is two inches thick before sculpting begins, then the non-image (background) area might be, say, one inch thick when the art work is done, and the image area will vary between one inch to two inches, depending on the final image. That would be considered to be "low relief" within the context of Bas-Relief. In a few major works of art, the actual human figure may have "near natural" depth, but still, the background is greatly flattened and is only a few inches behind the rounded figures. This might be characterized as "high bas-relief".
The advantage of the natural contour of the figures allows the work to be viewed from many angles without distortion of the figures themselves, but the background depth is only suggested. There is a continuum of the bas relief technique into the next category, alto-relievo, or high relief. This technique combines the rounded figures with significantly deeper backgrounds. Instead of the backgrounds being a few inches deep, they may be a foot to several feet deep. To qualify as relief, of either kind, the sculpture figures must float out from the background. A good rule of thumb, to classify a work, might be that the "bas" technique always has less depth behind the faces or figures than the actual faces or figures would have, when measured. In "alto" technique, the depth behind the figures may equal or exceed the depth of the faces or figures, which are usually natural in depth.
Occasionally, free standing sculptures are set in front of a relief sculpture to deepen the scene. Only those figures that are supported by attachment to the vertical stone background are considered to be part of the "relief". Foreground sculptures may be part of the final "grouping", but not of the "relief".
Bas relief has existed in all civilizations creating stone sculpture from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China, to classical, middle ages, and renaissance periods in European arts. A world wide use of this and the "alto" technique in public or political sculpture exists throughout the modern world. Bas-relief is an art technique that has been used since ancient times; the Elgin marbles are a prime example of this form of art. Stone Mountain is the world's largest bas-relief. The process is still in use today. There are countless examples both on display in museums and in the regular world. Most cultures of the world have utilized the technique.
It is most commonly used for the architectural adornment of building surfaces, both inside and outside, where the stone is part of the building, rather than as a free-standing piece of art to be hung on a wall. Sometimes the resulting image has been painted, and other times it has been left in the natural state of the material used. Bas-relief should not be confused with an etching, as the latter requires cutting into a flat surface, leaving indentations within the flat surface, which becomes suitable for printing by applying ink and pressing paper to the surface.
Frieze of the Tower of the Winds
In architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain or - in the Ionic or Corinthian order - decorated with bas-reliefs. In a columnar wall it lies upon the architrave ('main beam') and is capped by the moldings of the cornice.In the interior of a room, the frieze of a room is the section of wall above the picture rail under the crown moldings or cornice.
By extension, a frieze is a long band of painted, sculpted or even written decoration in such a position, above eye-level. These decorations often depict scenes, in an almost storyboard or animated sequence.
An example of an architectural frieze on the facade of a building is the octagonal Tower of the Winds in the Roman agora at Athens, which bears sculptures of the eight winds on its frieze.
A pulvinated frieze is convex in section. Such friezes were features of 16th-century Northern Mannerism, especially in subsidiary friezes, and much employed in interior architecture and in furniture.This concept has been generalized in the mathematical construction of Frieze patterns.
Sculpture of Hindu god Hanuman in Terra Cotta
Terra cotta (Italian: "baked earth") is a hard semifired waterproof ceramic clay used in pottery, older wastewater drains, and as surface embellishment in building construction. The term is also used to refer to items made out of this material and to its natural, brownish orange color.
Terra cotta has been used throughout history for sculpture and pottery, as well as bricks and roof shingles. In ancient times, the first clay sculptures were dried (baked) in the sun after being formed. Later, they were placed in the ashes of open hearths to harden, and finally kilns were used, similar to those used for pottery today.
Significant uses of terra cotta have included Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Terracotta Army of China, built in 210209 BC. American architect Louis Sullivan is well-known for his elaborate glazed terra cotta ornamentation, designs that would have been impossible to execute in any other medium.
Glazed architectural terra-cotta is a masonry building material popular in the United States from the late 19th century until the 1930s and still one of the most common building materials found in U.S. urban environments. Glazed terra-cotta , a sturdy and relatively inexpensive material which could be molded into richly ornamented detail, played a significant role in architectural styles such as the Chicago School and Beaux-Arts architecture. The material, sometimes referred to as architectural ceramics, was closely associated with the work of Cass Gilbert, Louis Sullivan, and Daniel H. Burnham, among other architects. Buildings incorporating glazed terra-cotta include the Woolworth Building in New York City and the Wrigley Building in Chicago. It is also used in the open-air Bridgemarket under the Manhattan side of the Queensboro Bridge. Variations in the color and pattern of the glaze made it possible for buildings contructed with the material to look like they were finished with granite or limestone; this flexibility was part of the reason the material was so attractive to architects at the time.
As compared to bronze sculpture, terra cotta uses a far simpler process for creating the finished work. Reusable mold-making techniques may be used for series production. Compared to marble sculpture and other stonework the finished product is far lighter and may be further glazed to produce objects with color or durable simulations of metal patina. Robust durable works for outdoor use require greater thickness and so will be heavier, with more care needed in the drying of the unfinished piece to prevent cracking as the material shrinks. Structural considerations are similar to those required for stone sculpture.
Xian's Terra Cotta Warriors
Terra cotta figurines of humans and animals from excavation at Harappa
Indus Valley Civilization
ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ALL FILES
