Statue

Ancient statues often show the bare surface of the material of which they are made. For example, many people associate Greek classical art with white marble sculpture, but there is evidence that many statues were painted in bright colors.{{cite web|url=http://www.archaeology.org/0801/trenches/colorgods.html |title=Archaeological Institute of America: Carved in Living Color |publisher=Archaeology.org |date=23 June 2008 |access-date=30 December 2012}} Most of the color has weathered off over time; small remnants were removed during cleaning; in some cases small traces remained that could be identified. A travelling exhibition of 20 coloured replicas of Greek and Roman works, alongside 35 original statues and reliefs, was held in Europe and the United States in 2008: Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity.{{cite web|url=http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/exhibitions/sackler/godsInColor.html |title=Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity September 22, 2007 Through January 20, 2008, The Arthur M. Sackler Museum |date=4 January 2009 |access-date=30 December 2012 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090104060402/http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/exhibitions/sackler/godsInColor.html |archive-date=4 January 2009 }}

Details such as whether the paint was applied in one or two coats, how finely the pigments were ground or exactly which binding medium would have been used in each case—all elements that would affect the appearance of a finished piece—are not known. Gisela Richter goes so far as to say of classical Greek sculpture, "All stone sculpture, whether limestone or marble, was painted, either wholly or in part."Richter, Gisela M. A., The Handbook of Greek Art: Architecture, Sculpture, Gems, Coins, Jewellery, Metalwork, Pottery and Vase Painting, Glass, Furniture, Textiles, Paintings and Mosaics, Phaidon Publishers Inc., New York, 1960 p. 46

Medieval statues were also usually painted, with some still retaining their original pigments. The coloring of statues ceased during the Renaissance, since excavated classical sculptures, which had lost their coloring, became regarded as the best models.

{{main|Sculpture}}

File:Urfa man.jpg, a {{convert|1.80|m}} of standstone developed in {{circa|9,000 BC}} and now housed at Şanlıurfa Museum]]

The Venus of Berekhat Ram, an anthropomorphic pebble found on the Golan Heights and dated to at least 230,000 years before present, is claimed to be the oldest known statuette. However, researchers are divided as to whether its shape is derived from natural erosion or was carved by an early human.[http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/venus-of-berekhat-ram.htm Venus of Berekhat Ram (230-700,000 BCE) cork.com] The Venus of Tan-Tan, a similar object of similar age found in Morocco, has also been claimed to be a statuette.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3047383.stm|title='Oldest sculpture' found in Morocco|last=Rincon|first=Paul|date=23 May 2003|work=BBC News|access-date=2009-05-15}}

The Löwenmensch figurine and the Venus of Hohle Fels, both from Germany, are the oldest confirmed statuettes in the world, dating to 35,000-40,000 years ago."Lion man takes pride of place as oldest statue" by Rex Dalton, Nature 425, 7 (4 September 2003) doi:10.1038/425007a also [http://www.nature.com/news/2003/030904/full/news030901-6.html Nature News 4 September 2003]"Ice Age Lion Man is world's earliest figurative sculpture" by Martin Bailey, [http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Ice-Age-iLion-Mani-is-worlds-earliest-figurative-sculpture/28595 The Art Newspaper 31 January 2013]{{cite web | url=https://www.uni-tuebingen.de/en/news/press-releases/newsfullview-pressemitteilungen/article/es-muss-eigentlich-eine-frau-sein.html | title="It must be a woman" - The female depictions from Hohle Fels date to 40,000 years ago... | publisher=Universität Tübingen | date=July 22, 2016 | access-date=July 26, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011145105/https://www.uni-tuebingen.de/en/news/press-releases/newsfullview-pressemitteilungen/article/es-muss-eigentlich-eine-frau-sein.html | archive-date=October 11, 2016 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all }}

The oldest known life-sized statue is Urfa Man found in Turkey which is dated to around 9,000 BC.

Throughout history, statues have been associated with cult images in many religious traditions, from Ancient Egypt, Ancient India, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome to the present. Egyptian statues showing kings as sphinxes have existed since the Old Kingdom, the oldest being for Djedefre ({{circa|2500 BC}}).The Egyptian Museum in Cairo by Abeer El-Shahawy and Farid Atiya (10 November 2005) {{ISBN|9771721836}} page 117 The oldest statue of a striding pharaoh dates from the reign of Senwosret I ({{circa|1950 BC}}) and is the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt by Donald B. Redford (15 December 2000) {{ISBN|0195102347}} page 230 The Middle Kingdom of Egypt (starting around 2000 BC) witnessed the growth of block statues which then became the most popular form until the Ptolemaic period ({{circa|300 BC}}).Egyptian Statues by Gay Robins (4 March 2008) {{ISBN|0747805202}} page 28

The focal point of the cella or main interior space of a Roman or Greek temple was a statue of the deity it was dedicated to. In major temples these could be several times life-size. Other statues of deities might have subordinate positions along the side walls.

The oldest statue of a deity in Rome was the bronze statue of Ceres in 485 BC.Famous Firsts in the Ancient Greek and Roman World by David Matz (Jun 2000) {{ISBN|0786405996}} page 87The Art of Rome c.753 B.C.-A.D. 337 by Jerome Jordan Pollitt (30 June 1983) {{ISBN|052127365X}} page 19 The oldest statue in Rome is now the statue of Diana on the Aventine.Samnium and the Samnites by E. T. Salmon (2 September 1967) {{ISBN|0521061857}} page 181

For a successful Greek or Roman politician or businessman (who donated considerable sums to public projects for the honour), having a public statue, preferably in the local forum or the grounds of a temple was an important confirmation of status, and these sites filled up with statues on plinths (mostly smaller than those of their 19th century equivalents). Fragments in Rome of a bronze colossus of Constantine and the marble colossus of Constantine show the enormous scale of some imperial statues; other examples are recorded, notably one of Nero.

The wonders of the world include several statues from antiquity, with the Colossus of Rhodes and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

While sculpture generally flourished in European Medieval art, the single statue was not one of the most common types, except for figures of the Virgin Mary, usually with Child, and the corpus or body of Christ on crucifixes. Both of these appeared in all size up to life-size, and by the late Middle Ages many churches, even in villages, had a crucifixion group around a rood cross. The Gero Cross in Cologne is both one of the earliest and finest large figures of the crucified Christ. As yet, full-size standing statues of saints and rulers were uncommon, but tomb effigies, generally lying down, were very common for the wealthy from about the 14th century, having spread downwards from royal tombs in the centuries before.

While Byzantine art flourished in various forms, sculpture and statue making witnessed a general decline; although statues of emperors continued to appear.Byzantine Art by Charles Bayet (1 October 2009) {{ISBN|1844846202}} page 54 An example was the statue of Justinian (6th century) which stood in the square across from the Hagia Sophia until the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century. Part of the decline in statue making in the Byzantine period can be attributed to the mistrust the Church placed in the art form, given that it viewed sculpture in general as a method for making and worshiping idols. While making statues was not subject to a general ban, it was hardly encouraged in this period. Justinian was one of the last Emperors to have a full-size statue made, and secular statues of any size became virtually non-existent after iconoclasm; and the artistic skill for making statues was lost in the process.

File:Michelangelo's David - right view 2.jpg, 1504, housed at The Accademia Gallery in Florence, Italy]]

Italian Renaissance sculpture rightly regarded the standing statue as the key form of Roman art, and there was a great revival of statues of both religious and secular figures, to which most of the leading figures contributed, led by Donatello and Michelangelo. The equestrian statue, a great technical challenge, was mastered again, and gradually statue groups.

These trends intensified in Baroque art, when every ruler wanted to have statues made of themself, and Catholic churches filled with crowds of statues of saints, although after the Protestant Reformation religious sculpture largely disappeared from Protestant churches, with some exceptions in large Lutheran German churches. In England, churches instead were filled with increasing elaborate tomb monuments, for which the ultimate models were continental extravagances such as the Papal tombs in Rome, those of the Doges of Venice, or the French royal family.

In the late 18th and 19th century there was a growth in public open air statues of public figures on plinths. As well as monarches, politicians, generals, landowners, and eventually artists and writers were commemorated. World War I saw the war memorial, previously uncommon, become very widespread, and these were often statues of generic soldiers.

Starting with the work of Maillol around 1900, the human figures embodied in statues began to move away from the various schools of realism that had been followed for thousands of years. The Futurist and Cubist schools took this metamorphism even further until statues, often still nominally representing humans, had lost all but the most rudimentary relationship to the human form. By the 1920s and 1930s statues began to appear that were completely abstract in design and execution.Giedion-Welcker, Carola, ‘’Contemporary Sculpture: An Evolution in Volume and Space, A revised and Enlarged Edition’’, Faber and Faber, London, 1961 pp. X to XX

The notion that the position of the hooves of horses in equestrian statues indicated the rider's cause of death has been disproved.{{cite web |url=http://www.snopes.com/military/statue.htm|title=Statue of Limitations |author=Barbara Mikkelson |date=2 August 2007 |website=Snopes.com |access-date=9 June 2011}}{{cite web |url=http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_074.html |title=In statues, does the number of feet the horse has off the ground indicate the fate of the rider? |author=Cecil Adams |date=6 October 1989 |work=The Straight Dope |publisher=Chicago Reader |access-date=9 June 2011}}

File:Loewenmensch1.jpg|Löwenmensch figurine, from Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany, now in Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany, possibly the oldest undisputed statuette. Aurignacian era, 40,000 BC–35,000 BC

File:Venus-of-Schelklingen.jpg|Two views of the Venus of Hohle Fels figurine, 40,000 BC–35,000 BC ({{convert|6|cm|in|abbr=on}} tall), one of the earliest known, undisputed examples of a depiction of a human being

File:Vestonicka venuse edit.jpg|Venus of Dolní Věstonice, ceramic figurine, 29,000 BC–25,000 BC

File:Venus von Willendorf 01.jpg|Venus of Willendorf, one of the oldest known statuettes, Upper Paleolithic, 24,000 BC–22,000 BC

File:Statue from Ain Ghazal in Louvre Abu Dhabi.jpg|Ain Ghazal statues, {{circa|7000 BC}}, found in Ain Ghazal, Jordan

File:Great Sphinx of Giza - 20080716a.jpg|Great Sphinx of Giza, {{circa|2558}}–2532 BC, the largest monolithic statue in the world, standing {{Convert|73.5|m|ft|0}} long, {{Convert|6|m|ft|0}} wide, and {{Convert|20.22|m|ft|2|abbr=on}} high. Giza, Egypt.

File:AurigaDelfi.jpg|The Charioteer of Delphi, 474 BC, Delphi Archaeological Museum, Greece

File:Front views of the Venus de Milo.jpg|Venus de Milo, {{circa|130}} – 100 BC, Greek, the Louvre

File:Laocoon and His Sons.jpg|Laocoön and his Sons, Greek, (Late Hellenistic), {{circa|160 BC}} and 20 BC, White marble, Vatican Museum

File:NaraTodaijiDaibutsu0212.jpg|Nara Daibutsu, {{circa|752}}, Nara, Japan

File:The statue of Gommateshvara Bahubali dating 978-993 AD..jpg|Gommateshvara Bahubali, {{circa|978}}–993 AD, 57 feet (17 m) high

File:AhuTongariki.JPG|Moai of Easter Island facing inland, Ahu Tongariki, {{circa|1250}}–1500, restored by Chilean archaeologist Claudio Cristino in the 1990s

File:Kamakura Budda Daibutsu front 1885.jpg|The Great Buddha of Kamakura, {{circa|1252}}, Japan

File:Lady Liberty under a blue sky (cropped).jpg|Statue of Liberty (formally Liberty Enlightening the World), New York Harbor, United States, by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi {{Circa|1886}}

File:Statuary group of the Burghers of Calais Listed Grade I 02.jpg|Auguste Rodin, The Burghers of Calais, 1884–{{circa|1889}}, in Victoria Tower Gardens, London, England.

File:Robert Burns, Union Terrace, Aberdeen, 1892 Henry Bain Smith, bronze, photo Jane Cartney 2010.jpg|Henry Bain Smith's bronze of Robert Burns, 1892, above Union Terrace Gardens, Aberdeen, Scotland

File:Alexander II - panoramio.jpg|A statue of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, the Grand Duke of Finland, at the Senate Square in Helsinki, Finland, sculpted by Walter Runeberg and Johannes Takanen, 1894

File:Musée Rodin 1.jpg|Auguste Rodin, The Thinker, 1880–1904

File:La Valse.jpg|Camille Claudel, The Waltz, 1889–1905, Musée Camille Claudel, Nogent-sur-Seine, France

File:Copenhagen - the little mermaid statue - 2013.jpg|The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen, Denmark by Edvard Eriksen 1913

File:20161015 Titopao Rizal Monument Closeup.jpg|Statue of Jose Rizal. at the Luneta Park, Philippines {{circa|1908}}

File:Millais statue 3.jpg|Thomas Brock, John Everett Millais, at Tate Britain 1905

File:Picture of Modigiliani statue, Standing Nude (1912).jpg|Standing Nude (1912), by Amedeo Modigliani

File:Egede nuuk.JPG|The statue of Hans Egede, 1921, at Nuuk, Greenland

File:Cristo Redentor - Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.jpg|Christ the Redeemer (1931), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

File:USMC War Memorial Sunset Parade 2008-07-08.jpg|U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, located in Arlington County, Virginia, by Felix de Weldon 1954

File:Marcus.aurelius.horse.statue.rome.arp.jpg|A closeup of the replica statue of Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, 1981; the original {{circa|200 AD}} is in the nearby Capitoline Museum, Rome

File:Spring Temple Buddha picturing Vairocana, in Lushan County, Henan, China.png|Spring Temple Buddha, the world's second tallest statue, overall 128 m (420 ft) in height, completed 2002, China.

File:Batu Caves stairs 2022-05.jpg|Lord Murugan Statue, Batu Caves, Malaysia, 140 feet (42.7 m).

File:Balance of nature statue at VUDA Park Visakhapatnam.JPG|Balance of Nature statue near VUDA Park, Visakhapatnam

File:Patung Garuda Wisnu Kencana dilihat dari Taman Budaya GWK.jpg|The Garuda Wisnu Kencana statue seen from the GWK Cultural Park in Bali, Indonesia

File:Statue of Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Memorial (2024)-L1005507.jpg|Statue of Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Memorial (2024)

File:Mount Rushmore Statues of Presidents 03.jpg|Mount Rushmore Statues of Presidents America In South Dakota

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• Bronze sculpture
• Bust (sculpture)
• Equestrian sculpture
• Figurine
• History of sculpture
• List of statues
• List of tallest statues
• List of statues of Queen Victoria
• List of colossal sculpture in situ
• Mannequin
• Living statue
• Memorial
• Monument
• Statues of Gudea, {{circa|2100 BC}}
• Statuette
• Stone carving
• Stone sculpture
• Venus figurines

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist|2}}

{{Commons category|Statues}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070217001941/http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/index.htm UK Public Monument and Sculpture Association] (archived 2007)

{{Clear}}

{{Art world}}

{{Colossal Buddha statues|state=collapsed}}

{{Sculptures}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Types of sculpture

Category:Sculpture terms