The word "sculpture" comes from the Latin "sculpo", which means to cut, carve. It is one of the oldest types of visual art based on the principle of three-dimensional image.
Great foreign sculptors
The emergence of sculpture is attributed to the primitive era. The first works are associated with the labor activity of a person and his beliefs.
The first great sculptors whose names have survived in the history of art were the sculptors of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome - Myron, Phidias, Scopas, Polycletus, Lysippus, Praxitel. Their works are addressed to free citizens and in many respects are the plastic embodiment of ancient myths. The ideals of a harmoniously developed personality were embodied in the images of heroes, warriors, athletes of the Olympic Games and gods. The work of these sculptors revealed the humanistic essence of Greek sculpture to the fullest extent: the beauty of the human body and the assertion of the significance of the human person.
This art form flourished in the Middle Ages. Donatello and A. Verrocchio made a very important step forward in the creation of free-standing statues, at this time the technique of bronze casting and embossing was being improved, the technique of majolica was used.
Among the sculptors of the Renaissance, J. Pilon and J. Goujon in France, A. Kraft and F. Stoss in Germany, and M. Pacher in Austria also stand out.
One of the heights of the Renaissance is the sculptures by Michelangelo, full of titanic power and intense drama. His creations "Moses", "Risen Slave" and "Dying Slave", "Pieta" are full of tragedy, plastic power and inner tension.
At the end of the 19th century, the star of the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin rose, who created works that are bright in terms of the strength of the emotional impact: Citizens of Calle, The Thinker, The Kiss.
Famous Russian sculptors
There were also many famous sculptors in Russia who left a noticeable mark on world art.
Since the beginning of the 18th century, interest in large-scale sculpture has awakened in Russian culture. At this time, classicism was established, the symbol of which was the monument to Peter I in St. Petersburg by the sculptor Etienne Falcone, as well as the work of Carlo Rastrelli. Until 1716, he worked primarily in France. In Russia, Rastrelli took part in the creation of many decorative and sculptural complexes, including in the decoration of the Peterhof Grand Cascade. The sculptor also worked a lot on the image of Peter I. During the life of the tsar, in 1719, he removed the mask from Peter and then created his wax bust.
For many years Rastrelli worked on the monument to Peter I. In 1800, an equestrian statue was erected in front of the Mikhailovsky Castle.
In the 19th century, the academic school of Russian sculpture was formed, which was represented by a galaxy of outstanding masters: M. I. Kozlovsky, F. I. Shubin, F. F. Shchedrin, V. I. Demut-Malinovsky, I. P. Martos, F. P. Tolstoy.
In the middle of the 19th century, the famous animal sculptor Pyotr Karlovich Klodt worked, the author of 4 sculptural groups "Horse Tamers" for the Annenkov Bridge in St. Petersburg.
The Soviet pavilion at the Paris exhibition was designed by Iofin. The building ended with a giant pylon raised by 33 meters, which was crowned with a sculpture by Mukhina.
Vera Ignatievna Mukhina was the leading master of Soviet sculpture. Her work is characterized by powerful architectonics of sculptural composition. One of the most famous works of the sculptor is The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman, created for the international exhibition The Art of Technology and Modern Life, held in Paris in 1937.
