Western oil paintings in the Middle Ages and Renaissance are mostly based on ancient Greek mythology (and its development-ancient Roman mythology). In the history of western sculpture development, ancient Greek sculpture represents an aesthetic height. Greek artists established norms and principles, which had a far-reaching impact on later western artistic creation, and the Renaissance and neoclassical sculpture art took this as a benchmark. Ancient Greek artists defined the principle of the most beautiful human body. The ancient Greek artist Poliklitos in the 4th century BC was the first artist to "standardize" beauty. From the perspective of pure mathematical theory, he calculated the proportion of a man's body as a model of human body. He is the founder of the golden section law. Moreover, judging others and cultivating one's figure and appearance became the habit of the ancient Greeks. "Socrates has always believed that anyone who is in poor shape and disheveled is a person who has no public spirit and does not actively participate in public affairs. In Socrates' eyes, the problem of obese citizens belongs to the category of public affairs, and obesity is also a political issue. Nietzsche once said, "Be a physical ancient Greek". Interestingly, if Alexander the Great of Macedonia hadn't invaded India eastward and brought sculpture art to the Ganges River valley, I'm afraid Buddhism spread to the eastern countries wouldn't have flourished later (Yungang, Longmen, Mogao Grottoes, Bamiyan Buddha ...), and even idols wouldn't have been enshrined in temples of Buddhism and Taoism (borrowed from the missionary form of Buddhism). Because, in the religious tradition of ancient India, idolatry was not advocated. Bare-chested Buddha statues can only come from ancient Greek civilization!

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the west

The history of mankind is very long. The earliest relics found in the history of art were about 20 thousand years ago, when people began to invent fire with their own hands. The invention of fire is a great event in human history. At that time, people lived a nomadic life by hunting, so people called the primitive age of hunting the Paleolithic Age. At that time, early art sprouted, which can be seen from shellfish and decorations. Simple patterns have been carved on animal bones with sharp tools, such as sharp stones. It is speculated that although a fire broke out at this time, clay has not been used to bake pottery. It's an original sculpture, but it's technically naive. It just shows the general posture. There are both round carvings and reliefs in form. These carvings must have some religious significance.

Humans in the Neolithic age were primitive farming people, and it was another great change from hunting nomads to choosing land to grow grain and raise livestock. Humans don't have to live a stressful life as before, but have enough leisure to make more exquisite utensils. At this time, the biggest feature is that human beings have begun to make pottery utensils with fire as utensils for daily life, and paint them with simple colors or some decorative ones. Most of them are dominated by lines and have a strong symbolic tendency. On the basis of the above primitive times, copper, gold and tin were discovered one after another, and then tin and copper were mixed into bronze, so people gradually made various tools, and the culture became more and more developed, reaching the bronze age. From hunting and nomadism to animal husbandry and farming, people gradually blossom and bear fruit in the art world.

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A brief history of foreign sculpture art

Excerpted from [China Art Network] Time: [April 5, 2005] Editor: [zhysw] View: [180] times.

Sculpture in ancient western countries mainly served totem, magic and religion for a long time.

In the United States, Tehuacan Valley in Pueblo, Mexico is the birthplace of great Central American culture. Then the most advanced pre-classical culture, Olmec culture, appeared in the Gulf of Mexico. It is known as the predecessor of Mexican civilization. Around 300 BC, Mayan culture began to appear and develop. It inherited the cultural traditions of Central America and developed large-scale sculptures, such as temples. /kloc-In the first half of the 4th century, the indigenous Aztecs of Mexico ruled the valley of Mexico, established the monarchy and formed the Aztec culture. /kloc-In the 6th century, the Spanish conquered the Aztec dynasty, and then plundered and ruled Peru, the birthplace of Inca culture.

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The Influence of Religion on the Development of Sculpture

Excerpted from [China Art Network] Time: [April 5, 2005] Editor: [zhysw] View: [2 10] times.

In the west, this period is called the Middle Ages, which covers the period from the end of the classical period to before the Renaissance. This long day was ruled by Christianity, and Christian art was formed. Sculptures in this period abandoned all kinds of classical laws about the proportion of nature and sought images more suitable for Christian themes, with various forms and elongated proportions. This sculpture with abstract French style makes every part of the work full of vitality. This sculpture form reflects the sculptor's desire to combine body and soul, and this innovation in artistic style became the predecessor of the great Gothic sculpture in the13rd century.

Similarly, a religion-Buddhism has emerged in the East. Buddhism was born in India, and the birth of Buddhism also promoted the development of Buddhist art, especially Buddhist sculpture. As far as Buddhist sculpture is concerned, the achievements of Indians in this respect are obvious. Indians' exploration of visual art is basically three-dimensional. In India, sculpture, architecture and even painting can be represented by the three-dimensional concept of tactile perception. They don't intentionally imitate the object, but create a generalized shape. These sculptures have a strong sense of weight, thus achieving the expression of texture, three-dimensional space and the momentum of monuments.

Buddhism was introduced to China after the Han Dynasty, and then to Japan and other places.

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19-20th century sculpture art

Excerpted from [China Art Network] Time: [April 5, 2005] Editor: [zhysw] View: [170] times.

/kloc-in the 0/9th century, a large number of monuments and commemorative sculptures showing outstanding skills were placed in many city squares and public buildings in Europe. Kulp, a famous French sculptor, created dances with strong romantic spirit. The whole work is full of vitality and has a smooth and beautiful rhythm. The relief of the Arc de Triomphe in Francois Rude is full of passion and national pride. Rosso, a medal village, applied impressionist painting theory to sculpture, thus combining painting with sculpture. His works show the brightest and most wonderful parts of sculpture under the illumination of colored light, while weakening other parts, showing rich light and shadow and character changes.

Speaking of19th century sculpture, Rodin can't be ignored. Rodin's artistic genius and unique personality make his works out of the convention. As a talented sculptor, the secret of Rodin is that he is good at expressing his inner feelings and connotations with the movements and gestures of statues, and he has injected unforgettable realism and humanism. Although Bourdel was a student of Rodin and was deeply influenced by him, he also created a large number of sculptures that compromised the classical tradition and Rodin's works. He emphasizes the architectural nature of the structure of his works and has a deformed decorative taste. The mayor is a sculptor with a different style. He put aside all the details and only showed the plump body and simple and calm posture, which made his works have both the sense of harmony in the classical period and the natural beauty of modern art.

The 20th century is a colorful era, with various ideological trends and schools emerging and spreading all over the world, such as cubism, expressionism, futurism, surrealism, pop, abstract composition and photo realism. No matter what their forms and viewpoints are, they are all new forms divorced from traditional art. ..

One of the two major trends of sculpture in the 20th century is Kangding Stan Brancusi (1876 ~ 1957).

Broncusi's contribution to modern sculpture is various. His most important contribution is to create a symbol with universal significance. The sculpture form of this symbol is simple, emphasizing the basic attributes of the body (see figure 1 1- 18). Due to the rapid changes and fast pace of modern life, as well as chaotic things, people psychologically require to accept a simple and concise art form.

The other is cubist sculpture, founded by Picasso, but represented by Ukrainian-born Alexander Akimoto (1887 ~ 1964). The characteristics of his works are that a solid plane and a hollow open volume are compared to form a unique rhythm and movement, and a concave structure is used to replace the original solid or even convex structure, so that the space flows and the conversion between positive and negative space is explored. The representatives of cubism are Raymond, Toussaint Villone, Henry Laurent and Jacques Lipshits.

At the same time as cubist sculptors created, Italian sculptors also created a different style-"futurism". Guitto Boyuni declared: "Give up the limited lines and closed sculptures absolutely and completely." "Let's open the human body and shut the environment into the human body."

In addition to these two mainstream schools, there is also the constitutionalism school. The sculptors Naum, Gabor and Ann Pei busoni (1886 ~ 1962) made new shapes in the space occupied by objects. They proposed to replace the sense of quantity with space and time, and also sought new forms of expression of architecture by forming sculptures, which made important contributions to architecture and adopted and discussed new styles.

In a word, there are many schools of modern sculpture. The so-called "ready-made" sculpture, "soft" sculpture and george siegel's pop art are dazzling, but their unified feature is the use of traditional materials and modern synthetic materials (such as metal wire, steel, cloth, paper, etc. ), plus various new technologies, using sound, light, color, electricity, speed and other means to create a dynamic world and become a talented artist.