skulptuure

Skulpture is the art of shaping three-dimensional forms. Working with materials such as stone, metal, wood, clay, or synthetic media, sculptors create objects that are intended to be viewed from multiple angles. Sculptures may be freestanding, reliefs on a background, or elements within installations, and they range from representational likenesses to abstract forms. The term derives from Latin sculpere, meaning to carve.

Origins of sculpture extend to prehistoric times, with early figures carved from bone, stone, and clay. In ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, sculpture served religious, commemorative, and civic functions and helped define artistic languages through naturalism, idealized form, and narrative reliefs. Outside Europe, traditions such as Indian temple sculpture, Chinese bronze work, and African, Mesoamerican, and Southeast Asian sculpture developed their own vocabularies and social roles.

Techniques include carving (subtracting material), modeling (adding material), casting (usually in metal via lost-wax or other methods), and assembling or construction from ready-made parts. Materials span stone (marble, granite), metal (bronze, iron), wood, clay, plaster, and modern composites and plastics. The choice of material and technique often reflects function, location, and the desired surface and weight.

During the Renaissance and later periods, sculpture often sought idealized form and harmony, while the 19th and 20th centuries saw shifts toward realism, abstraction, and experimentation with form and process. Important movements include classical naturalism, Romanticism, Modernism and its offshoots, and contemporary practices that expand sculpture into public art, land art, installation, and kinetic or digitally mediated works.

Contemporary sculpture frequently challenges traditional boundaries by combining found objects, performance, environmental concerns, and new technologies such as 3D printing and virtual modeling. It is a global practice with prominent centers in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa, and it intersects with architecture, urban planning, and education.