Types of
Sculpture
Subtractive
Subtractive sculpture is the oldest form
of sculpture and involves removing material, as in wood carving or stone
sculpture, to
create a finished work. Subtractive sculpture
is by far the most technically difficult and due to the nature of the medium is the most restrictive in
expression. Early Egyptian and
Greek sculpture prior to the Golden age of the 5th century BC were all similar
in their frontal, stiff, and formal composition, which were dictated by the limitations of
the medium. Eventually stone artists began to compose their sculpture first in clay and
then used a variety of mechanical devices to transfer the three dimensional coordinates of the
clay surface to a block of stone. In this way, stone subtractive sculptures of
the Roman era began to take on a new mobility and grace. Another reason
the Roman Marbles were more expressive than their earlier Greek counterparts is
that many were copies of Greek bronzes; bronzes which were created
without the limitations of stone.
During the Renaissance, the greatest
stone sculptor ever known, Michelangelo, created his works first in clay.
The clay would next be cast in plaster and a three dimensional pointing device
would be used by a staff of assistants to transfer the dimensions to a block of
marble; countless hours would then be spent drilling into the marble in thousands of spots to
the proper depth required by the pointing device. The raw shaped marble
was finally finished by the hand of the master himself. Only in Michelangelo's
last few years of life did he began the incredible feat of actually carving
figures directly out of stone without the aid of a preliminary work and pointing
devices.
The greatest drawback of
subtractive sculpture is in the excessive demand of time and the one of a kind
results. Editions are not an option, so today it would be difficult for
any artist to make even a meager living dealing exclusively with stone.
Another limitation of stone subtractive sculpture is the relative fragility of
the stone itself. This particular limitation prevents the artist
from creating open compositions with outstretched arms or legs. This
necessity for tight composition led Michelangelo to explain that a well composed
marble figure could be rolled downhill without anything breaking
off.
Additive
Additive sculpture describes all other
forms of sculpture and the process most commonly used today. Simply put,
additive sculpture is the process of creating sculpture by adding material to create the
work. Although artists have worked in every medium from butter to cement,
the most common material is typically wax or clay which is modeled by the artist
to create the form desired. The term "modeling" is used interchangeably
with the word "sculpting" to describe additive sculpture, especially
appropriate when dealing with clay.
Unlike the finality of each step in the
subtractive process, clay can be removed as easily as it is added, which affords
the artist the unlimited ability to keep working until the final product
"looks right." This flexibility allows the artist great freedom,
expression, and experimentation. Once a sculpture is "modeled"
the artist will create a mold and cast the work in a more permanent material
such as bronze. It was the additive modeling process that allowed the
Greek artists of the Golden era of the 5th century B.C. to make a huge leap
forward from the stiff subtractive stone poses to a new fluid grace found in
later Greek bronzes.
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