Notes on Ancient Greek Sculpture

Ancient Greece made an immediate and lasting impact on Western culture.

Notes on Prehistoric Western Europe Sculpture

The earliest surviving works of Western art correspond roughly to the final stages of the Ice Age in Europe and date back to about 30,000 BC. Before that time, objects were made primarily for utilitarian purposes, although many have esthetic qualities. It is important to remember that the modern western concept of art would have been alien in the Stone Age.

The most famous Paleolithic sculpture is the so-called Venus of Willendorf, carved out limestone and variously dated from 25,000 BC to 21,000 BC. 

The scale of the head, breasts, torso, and thighs in relation to the whole is quite large while the facial features, neck, and lower legs are virtually eliminated.

Notes on Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials, typically stone such as marble, metal, glass, or wood, or plastic materials such as clay, textiles, polymers and softer metals. The term has been extended to works including sound, text and light.

Found objects may be presented as sculptures. Materials may be worked by removal such as carving; or they may be assembled such as by welding , hardened such as by firing, or molded or cast. Surface decoration such as paint may be applied. Sculpture has been described as one of the plastic arts because it can involve the use of materials that can be moulded or modulated.