On sculpture

pp. 75-94

in: Robert Wood, Nature, artforms, and the world around us, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

In this chapter we consider sculpture, which was originally made to fit into an architectural environment but later became freestanding and monumental. It occupies space through its external form and sets up tensions in the surrounding space. The work proceeds by modelling (perhaps followed by casting), carving, and constructing, depending upon the medium. One has to move away from the expectations produced by Greek and Roman styles in order to appreciate the entirely different mode of treatment in other sculptural traditions. The chapter concludes with a more extended treatment of Rodin.