SCULPTURE 



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SCULPTURE 



THE STORY OF SCULPTURE 



'CULPTURE, skuip'ture. 



Among the arts of de- 

 sign three stand out pre- 

 eminently architecture, 

 sculpture and painting. 

 Architecture and sculp- 

 ture, which preceded 

 painting in point of time, 

 had their origin in a far- 

 distant period of the 



world's history, and in its primitive stages 

 sculpture was a handmaid of the art of build- 

 ing. Primitive man first sought security from 

 storms and attacks of wild beasts; then he 

 turned his attention to the adornment of his 

 rude habitation. Thus, in the caverns, lake 

 dwellings and other abodes of prehistoric times 

 appeared carvings on bones, stones and walls 

 the crude beginnings of what was to be one of 

 the noblest of the arts. In the course of its 

 development sculpture became the special me- 

 dium for the portrayal of the human figure. 

 A French critic has said: 



"After admiring the universe man began to 

 contemplate himself ; he realized that the human 

 form is adapted to the- spirit ; that its proportions, 

 its symmetry, its ease of motion, its superior 

 beauty, render it alone, of all living forms, capa- 

 ble of fully manifesting thought. Therefore he 

 copies the human body, and sculpture is born." 



Processes. While we are accustomed to think 

 of the sculptor as one who hews a statue out 

 of a block of marble, the actual work of the 

 artist is quite different. Before the work in 

 stone can be done a clay model must be made, 

 and this model must be cast in plaster. The 

 whole process is very interesting. The artist 

 usually models a small figure of the statue to 

 serve as a pattern. Then he reproduces this on 

 a large scale, molding the clay on an iron frame- 

 work of the required size. When the clay 

 model is completed plaster of Paris is poured 

 over the figure to a depth of two or three 

 inches, and allowed to "set." Then the artist 

 removes the clay, leaving what is called the 

 "waste mold." Plaster of Paris is then poured 



into the mold, and when 

 the plaster has hardened 

 the waste mold is care- 

 fully clipped away. Thus 

 a cast of the figure is 

 'obtained. In many in- 

 stances different portions 

 of the statue are cast 

 separately, a practice 

 known as piece molding. 



The reproduction of the cast in marble is 

 the next step. Usually the block of marble and 

 the model are placed near each other upon 

 pedestals. By means of an accurate pointing 

 machine and other devices the important points 

 of depression in the model are marked on the 

 block and holes are drilled in the stone. Fi- 

 nally a skilled stonecutter hews the marble 

 away according to the position of the holes, and 

 the statue is ready for finishing touches. The 

 finishing is done by the sculptor, but this is 

 only a small feature of the work. In fact, 

 many modern sculptors know little about actual 

 carving in marble. It is known, however, that 

 Michelangelo, whose supremacy in sculpture 

 is unquestioned, hewed his creations from the 

 marble block without the aid of a cast model, 

 and this was also the custom of the earliest 

 sculptors of antiquity. 



Sculpture in bronze involves other processes. 

 The colossal Statue of Liberty in New York 

 Harbor is an example of the repousse process, 

 in which thin sheets of bronze are beaten into 

 the desired shapes and fastened to a frame- 

 work, or core. Statues are often cast in bronze 

 by the following process: A core of fireproof 

 material is made, having the shape of the in- 

 tended figure, but made on a slightly smaller 

 scale. A coating of wax is applied to this, and 

 in it the details are worked out. Then a coating 

 of fireproof material is applied, to serve as a 

 mold, the core and outer coating being fastened 

 together with bronze pins. Next, the figure is 

 heated until the outer coating hardens and the 

 wax melts and runs out of holes at the bottom. 



