Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in
three dimensions. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sculptural processes
originally used carving (the removal of material) and modelling (the addition
of material, as clay), in stone, metal, ceramics, wood and other materials but,
since Modernism, there has been an almost complete freedom of materials and
process. A wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving,
assembled by welding or modelling, or molded, or cast.
Sculpture in stone survives far better than works of art in
perishable materials, and often represents the majority of the surviving works
(other than pottery) from ancient cultures, though conversely traditions of
sculpture in wood may have vanished almost entirely. However, most ancient
sculpture was brightly painted, and this has been lost.
Sculpture has been central in religious devotion in many
cultures, and until recent centuries large sculptures, too expensive for
private individuals to create, were usually an expression of religion or
politics. Those cultures whose sculptures have survived in quantities include
the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, India and China, as well as many in
South America and Africa.
The Western tradition of sculpture began in ancient Greece,
and Greece is widely seen as producing great masterpieces in the classical
period. During the Middle Ages, Gothic sculpture represented the agonies and
passions of the Christian faith. The revival of classical models in the
Renaissance produced famous sculptures such as Michelangelo's David. Modernist
sculpture moved away from traditional processes and the emphasis on the
depiction of the human body, with the making of constructed sculpture, and the
presentation of found objects as finished art works.
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