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Sculpture as an artform has a long and varied history spanning many millenia, with sculpture having various religious and ideolical significance to the cultures which have used this artform. Understanding the history of sculpture, it’s uses in religion and symbolism helps us to understand past and present culture, opening up a window on the past.

Early history of sculpture – The Origins

Sculpture has been used as religious and social symbolism even as early as 24,000BC in the early stone age. The earliest examples of surviving sculptures utilise materials such as Ivory and stone and depict stylised human or animal figures. Many of these early sculptured figures show exaggerated female forms with overdeveloped breasts and are thought to be fertility right symbols.

In 2003, the earliest known example of surviving sculpture is throught to have been found in Germany, with a piece of artwork depicting a waer bird, a horses head and a hybrid half-man, half cat creature reminiscent of the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. The find was radio-carbon dated to around 30,000 BC, which shows the sophistication of carving skills at this time.

Of course, the survival of these pieces of sculpture and carvings of these types of artifacts are entirely dependent upon the materials from which they were produced. It’s very likely that these types of religious and culturally significant artifacts have been produced for hundreds of thousands of years – infact it is thought that the first tool using hominids, Homo Habilis had the capability to create crude pieces of sculpture however it may be the case that the brain capacity of these early hominids wasn’t large enough to grasp the concept of artwork.

It’s likely that many pieces of early sculpture have been lost because the materials used to create them have decayed over time. It is known that early sculptors may have used mud, wood and clay to make sculptures, however the nature of these materials unless treated would not result in pieces which could last for thousands of years. Even some soft rock sculptures are naturally weathered during this length of time, so it may be that we are missing out on a large array of artwork which is unrecoverable.

The Grand Scale – Emergence of Large Sculptures

During the Egyption and and Sumerian periods from the 5th Millenium BC, large sculptures emerged which utilised locally occuring materials such as sandstone and alabaster – easily carved stone which could be formed on an almost industrial scale to produce massive ornamental sculptures. It was usual during these periods for the base materials to be adorned with paints and coverings, with the very best pieces being covered with copper leaf, Gold leaf and precious stones. Pieces of this nature survive to this day and adorn our museums all over the planet.

Egyption sculpture especially was used as religious depiction, with a whole culture based around the worship of hybrid human / animal Gods which were faithfully reproduced in wall carvings and sculpture throughout the Kingdom. These types of large scale sculptures are still evident throughout Egypt and the middle east, drawing large numbers of tourists every year to marvel at their sophistication and enigma of how they were made.

The Sophisticated Romans – Defining the Artform

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Sculpture really began to develop into an artform with the classical Roman empire. Any visitor to modern day Rome will tell you that the sophistication of the Human form depicted in the sculptures of this period defies logic given the tools available at the time, with marble being the material of choice for construction. Carving marble requires a steady hand and the high price of this base material means that mistakes whilst carving can be very costly indeed.

The artform continued to develop in all it’s forms over the Centuries and no matter what happened to local ideology, sculpture remains to this day as a well recognised form of Human expression, giving the world long-lasting art which is admired by many.

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