Study Notes: Sculpture Through Time

Materials used in sculptures vary according to region and locality.
Archaeologists believed that their sculpture is a result of natural erosion and not of human artistry.
Frequently carving may have mythological or religious significance.

Date: 28{,}000\ {\,}\mathrm{B.C.E.} \ -\ 25{,}000\ {\,}\mathrm{B.C.E.}
Carved from limestone.
Features: excessively heavy breast and abdomen used as charm to ensure fertility.
Significance: fertility symbolism in prehistoric figurines; typical of Venus figurines found in Europe.

Date: 25{,}000\ \,\mathrm{years\ old}
A sculpture of a lady with the hood; fragmentary ivory figurine from the Upper Paleolithic.
Realistically represents the human face and hairstyle.
Significance: early example of naturalistic portrait features in prehistoric sculpture.

Symbolic elements were widely used: forms, hieroglyphics, relative size, location, materials, color, actions and gestures.
Tombs required the most extensive use of sculpture.
Most common materials: \text{wood},\ \mathrm{ivory},\ \text{and stones}.
Context: Egyptian sculpture combines ritual meaning with monumental tomb architecture.

1) Symbolisms were heavily used to represent the gods. They were represented as composite creatures with animal heads on human bodies.
2) Relief compositions were arranged in horizontal lines to record an event or represent an action.
3) Gods often shown larger than humans, kings larger than their followers, the dead larger than the living.
4) Empty space filled with figures or hieroglyphics.
5) All individual components were brought to the plane of representation and laid out like writing.

Date: 18^{\text{th}}\ \,\text{Dynasty},\ 1375-1357\ \mathrm{BC}
Description: Realistic, with heavy-lidded eyes, slender neck, determined chin and pure profile under her heavy crown.
Significance: showcase of naturalism and portrait-like quality in Egyptian sculpture.

Date: 4^{\text{th}}\ \text{Dynasty},\ 2548-2530\ \mathrm{B.C.E.}
Characteristic: portraits presented in rigid postures, simple and powerful with very little display of private emotion.
Significance: example of formal, monumental royal portraiture in Old Kingdom Egypt.

Early Greek sculptures were tense and stiff; bodies hidden within enfolding robes.
After three centuries of experiments, Greek sculptures evolved and showed all points of human anatomy and proportion.
Context: foundational progression from archaic rigidity to classical ideal of naturalism and proportion.

Date: \text{c. } 450\ \mathrm{BC}
Characteristics: Shows an attitude of maximum tension, full of compressed energy, about to explode into action.
Significance: iconic example of dynamic balance and motion in classical sculpture.

Material focus: most Roman sculptures are made of monumental terra-cotta.
Approach: Romans did not attempt to compete with the free-standing Greek works of history or mythology; instead they produced reliefs on Great Roman triumphal columns with continuous narrative reliefs around.
Significance: adaptation of Greek precedents into monumental public statuary and narrative relief sculpture.

Date: c.\ 520\ \mathrm{BCE}
Location: Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia, Rome.
Material: terra cotta.
Description: a husband and wife are shown reclining comfortably, as if they were on a couch; represents domestic intimacy in funerary art.

Dominant themes: religious, everyday life scenes, and motifs from nature.
Symbolism: animals used as symbols (dove, deer, peafowl).
Acrostic signs: form of writing in which taking the first letter, syllable, or word of different lines and combining them can read a message; these signs contained great theological significance.

Description: an early example of Byzantine ivory work.
Significance: demonstrates early insular ivory carving and religious iconography in Byzantine art.

Illustrative pieces include reliquaries, altar frontals, crucifixes, and devotional images.
Materials: small, costly materials for royal and aristocratic patrons.
Function: lightweight devotional images carried in processions both inside and outside churches.

Date: c.\ 1120{-}1135\ by Gislebertus.
Location/Context: Tympanum (an architectural element with in the arch or pediment) of the west portal, Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun, Burgundy, France.
Significance: monumental sculpture serving theological instruction and architectural integration on medieval church portals.

Style: greater freedom of expression; figures project outward rather than lying flat against the wall.
Postures: figures given their own attitudes rather than following a single decorative pattern.
Quality: more lively and realistic, with dynamic composition and expressive presence.

Date: end of the 12th century.
Location: Cathedral of Amiens.
Context: late medieval Gothic sculpture emphasizing movement, emotion, and liturgical function.