46 Fun Facts About Sculpture

Which sculptor is renowned for creating 'The Thinker'?

Rodin first called the figure The Poet and conceived it for a doorway commission begun in 1880; the first monumental bronze was cast only in 1904.

The marble block for Michelangelo's David was quarried in the Fantiscritti quarry near which Tuscan town?

Carrara's old Roman Fantiscritti quarry supplied the block, which went by ox-cart to the sea and up the Arno to Florence, where two sculptors abandoned it before Michelangelo began in 1501.

Anish Kapoor's mirror-polished Cloud Gate, nicknamed 'The Bean', reflects the skyline of which American city's Millennium Park?

Chicago's Loop holds Millennium Park, where the sculpture is the centrepiece of Grainger Plaza.

The Great Sphinx of Giza, a reclining lion with a human head, was carved from a single piece of which stone?

Limestone bedrock of the Giza Plateau was carved in place to make the colossal statue.

The monumental 'Christ the Redeemer' statue overlooks which Brazilian city?

The 'Christ the Redeemer' statue is a famous Art Deco sculpture located at the peak of Corcovado mountain, overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro.

In the ancient sculpture Laocoön and His Sons, the Trojan priest and his two boys are being attacked by what?

Sea serpents sent by the gods entwine Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus in a mortal struggle.

In sculpture, what is a stele?

A stele is a single upright standing stone slab or pillar, raised across the ancient world as a grave marker or monument; the Code of Hammurabi survives carved on a basalt stele.

Which subtractive sculpture technique removes material from a block of stone or wood to reveal the final form?

Carving cuts, chips or scrapes material away, the opposite of modelling, which builds a form up from soft material.

What is pouring liquid material into a mold to solidify into a sculpture called?

Casting pours a fluid material such as molten bronze or plaster into a mold, where it hardens into a duplicate of the original form; most large bronzes are made by lost-wax casting.

Which material is the classic medium for additive sculpture, built up by hand rather than cut away?

Clay is also the medium in which many sculptures later cast in metal are first modelled.

Which Renaissance artist made the bronze 'David', the first unsupported nude statue cast since antiquity?

Donatello's bronze David, probably made in the 1440s for the Medici, now stands in the Bargello in Florence alongside his earlier marble David of 1408-09.

Who carved the marble Pietà that stands in St Peter's Basilica in Rome?

Michelangelo carved the Pietà in 1498-99, when he was about 24; it is the only work he ever signed, on the sash across Mary's chest.

Which British artist is known for large abstract sculptures with pierced forms?

Moore's later reclining figures contrast solid bronze with the space around and through them, and his monumental works were placed in cities around the world.

The 'Venus de Milo', a famous ancient Greek sculpture, depicts which goddess?

The 'Venus de Milo' is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, and is a celebrated example of Hellenistic sculpture.

What ancient civilization is responsible for the creation of the Terracotta Army?

The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, interred with him to protect him in the afterlife.

Which pioneer of modern abstract sculpture made the 'Bird in Space' series?

Constantin Brâncuși made the first Bird in Space in 1923; when one was shipped to New York in 1926, US customs refused to class it as art and taxed it as a metal object, a ruling overturned in 1928.

What art movement is Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain', a porcelain urinal signed 'R. Mutt', associated with?

Submitted to the Society of Independent Artists in 1917 and rejected, the urinal was photographed at Stieglitz's studio and published in the Dada journal The Blind Man.

Which British artist created 'Angel of the North', a large public sculpture in Gateshead?

Antony Gormley is known for his sculptures that explore the human form, and 'Angel of the North' is one of his most recognizable works, a massive steel figure with outstretched wings.

A free-standing statue meant to be viewed from all sides, attached to nothing but its base, is sculpture of what kind?

In the round is the term for statues and other free-standing work; reliefs, by contrast, stay attached to a background of the same material.

What material is famously used by American artist Jeff Koons for his 'Balloon Dog' series?

Balloon Dog is mirror-polished stainless steel with a transparent colour coating; the series belongs to Koons's Celebration works, and the orange version sold for $58.4 million at Christie's in 2013.

Joining materials like wood, metal or found objects into a sculpture is known as what?

Assemblage is an additive sculpture technique where an artwork is created by piecing together various pre-existing objects or materials.

Which Italian sculptor created 'The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa'?

Gian Lorenzo Bernini carved The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa in 1647-52 for the Cornaro Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, lighting the marble group with gilded bronze rays from a hidden window.

Which Japanese artist is known for 'Infinity Mirrored Rooms' and polka-dot motifs?

Yayoi Kusama, born in Matsumoto in 1929, showed her first Infinity Mirror Room, 'Phalli's Field', in New York in 1965; polka dots became her signature motif in the 1950s.

What kind of suspended, air-moved sculpture did Alexander Calder pioneer?

The name was coined by Marcel Duchamp in 1931 as a French pun on the words for mobile and motive; Calder's static works are called stabiles.

The ancient Greek sculpture 'Discus Thrower' (Discobolus) is an example of what artistic ideal?

Myron's Discobolus of about 450 BC embodies Classical idealism: the original bronze is lost and known through Roman marble copies, and it freezes the athlete at maximum tension while keeping balance and proportion.

Dale Chihuly is famous for large-scale sculptures in which medium?

Dale Chihuly, born in Tacoma in 1941, blew his first glass bubble in 1965; after a 1976 car crash cost him the sight of one eye he directed teams of glassblowers to make his monumental blown-glass installations.

Which Yorkshire-born sculptor, famed for pierced abstract forms, died in a fire at her studio in 1975?

Hepworth studied at Leeds School of Art and the Royal College of Art in the 1920s and became a leading figure of British modernism.

'The Gates of Hell', the doorway from which The Thinker emerged, depicts which work?

Rodin's Gates of Hell illustrate Dante's Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy; he worked on the doors on and off from 1880 until his death in 1917, and the bronze was cast only afterwards.

What material is used for temporary festival sculptures, known for eventually melting?

Ice is a popular material for ephemeral sculptures, especially at winter festivals, due to its ability to be carved and its temporary nature as it melts.

Which American artist is known for large soft sculptures of everyday objects?

Claes Oldenburg was a central figure in the Pop Art movement, famous for his monumental sculptures that transform ordinary objects into extraordinary works of art, often with a playful and ironic twist.

By what other name is the lost-wax method of reproducing a sculpture in metal known?

Investment casting is the industrial name for lost-wax casting, cire perdue in French: a wax model is coated in a refractory 'investment' mould, melted out, and replaced by molten metal.

Which French-American artist is known for her large spider sculptures titled 'Maman'?

Louise Bourgeois made Maman, the familiar French word for mother, in 1999 for the opening of Tate Modern's Turbine Hall; the steel spider stands over 30 feet high and carries a sac of marble eggs.

The 'Colossus of Rhodes' was an ancient monumental sculpture of which Greek god?

The 'Colossus of Rhodes' was a giant statue of the sun god Helios, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, that stood at the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes.

What are the carved figures on Gothic cathedrals that serve as waterspouts called?

Gargoyles are carved waterspouts that throw rain clear of the walls, from the Old French gargouille, 'throat'; a similar figure with no spout is technically a grotesque or chimera.

Which American sculptor created the seated Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial?

Daniel Chester French designed the 19-foot seated Lincoln; the Piccirilli Brothers carved it from 28 blocks of white Georgia marble, and it was unveiled at the memorial's dedication on 30 May 1922.

What is the term for sculpture made from discarded or found industrial materials, often critiquing consumerism?

Junk art, or found object sculpture, utilizes discarded, everyday objects, often to create works that comment on societal waste or consumer culture.

In which year was Copenhagen's 'Little Mermaid' statue unveiled?

The statue was unveiled on 23 August 1913, commissioned by brewer Carl Jacobsen; Edvard Eriksen modelled the body on his wife Eline after ballerina Ellen Price declined to pose nude, keeping Price's face.

Which French Impressionist artist created the controversial sculpture 'Little Dancer Aged Fourteen'?

Edgar Degas showed the wax Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, dressed in a real bodice, tutu and hair ribbon, at the 1881 Impressionist exhibition; critics found it ugly, and the bronzes were cast only after his death in 1917.

What is the process of hammering a metal sheet from the reverse to create a design in relief?

Repoussé is a metalworking technique where a malleable metal is ornamented or shaped by hammering from the reverse side to create a design in relief.

Which Swiss sculptor is known for his elongated, emaciated bronze figures, such as 'Walking Man'?

Alberto Giacometti, born in Borgonovo in 1901, made his Walking Man bronzes in 1960; the elongated post-war figures captured existential fragility, and Walking Man I sold for £65 million at Sotheby's in 2010.

Which sculptor led the carving of the presidents' heads on Mount Rushmore?

Gutzon Borglum led the carving of Mount Rushmore from 1927 until his death in March 1941; his son Lincoln Borglum finished the work that October.

The Bamiyan Buddhas, blown up in 2001, were an outstanding expression of which school of Buddhist art?

The two Bamiyan Buddhas, 55 and 38 metres tall and carved in the 6th century, were the largest standing Buddha carvings in the world and the outstanding monument of the late Gandharan school; the Taliban destroyed them in March 2001.

Which French sculptor designed the Statue of Liberty?

Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the Statue of Liberty; Gustave Eiffel engineered its iron framework, and the copper-clad statue was dedicated in New York Harbor on 28 October 1886.

Which mid-20th-century art movement emphasised primary geometric forms and industrial materials?

Minimalism in sculpture focused on extreme simplicity of form, often using geometric shapes and industrial materials to create non-representational works.

Which material did Naum Gabo use in his Linear Construction works to make voids feel as concrete as solid mass?

Gabo strung nylon filament across Perspex frames in Linear Construction No. 1 (1942-43) and its successors, so the taut transparent threads describe volumes of empty space as solid mass would.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace has stood at the top of which institution's main staircase since 1884?

The Winged Victory was installed atop the Louvre's Daru staircase in 1884; found on Samothrace in 1863 by Charles Champoiseau, it went to Paris while the grey marble blocks of its ship-shaped base were initially left behind.