The History Book Club discussion

This thread is about sculpture and sculptors.

Daniel Chester French

Mark wrote: "Regarding Message 10 and the Lincoln Memorial, Daniel Chester French performed the sculpture of Lincoln. French’s first famous sculpture was the famous Concord Monument statue of the Minute Man at ..."

Having seen the Concord Monument so many times, I had never made that connection. Looking further into French after your wonderful post, I discovered that he also designed the Pulitzer Prize medals and is responsible for so many other wonderful sculptures, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_C...

http://www.yeodoug.com/resources/dc_f...

Regarding Chesterwood, his former home:

http://chesterwood.org/

The National Park Service has a wonderful primer on French:

http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/twhp/ww...

by Margaret French Cresson

Daniel Chester French

Minute Man



This larger-than-life-sized bronze sculpture stands at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. The statue was unveiled on April 19, 1875, the centennial of the battles of Concord and Lexington, the opening shots of the Revolutionary War. The first stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Concord Hymn, a famous poem much recited by school children of the day, is carved on the base:

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.

Work by Daniel Chester French

Abraham Lincoln Statue Being Installed - 1922



This photo shows the Lincoln statue being put together in the Lincoln Memorial. Even though a machine was used in enlarging sculptures, much of the work still needed to be done by hand. How difficult do you think it would have been to ensure that the 28 individual blocks of marble fit together perfectly?

From the National Park Service tutorial - also look at the models that
French developed before the finished product

http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/twhp/ww...

Just wonderful. Here is the complete Concord Hymn.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.

Good addition.

Frederick Hart

The Three Soldiers which complements the Vietnam Wall to honor all who served and died in that conflict. If you have seen it, you will agree that it is extremely moving.

Another moving tribute to the Vietnam veterans.....the Women's Memorial, adjacent to the Wall, was designed by Glenna Goodacre. It was dedicated in 1993. The nurse looking up is named Hope; the praying nurse in Faith; and the one tending the injured soldier is Charity. Speaking from experience, it can move you to tears.

Nice images Jill, very moving.

It is something you need to see when you are in the States, AR. The Wall is impressive but these are so well done and life like. You see visitors blinking back tears, and in some cases, weeping. It is a very emotional experience.

All the photos are worth more than a 1,000 words. With Kodachrome phasing out I must say there is still something special about black & white.

Too true, Mark. That's why I like old b/w movies....with artistic lighting, they can be breathtaking. The same with b/w photos.

One of my favorite monuments in Washington, D.C. is the Korean War Veterans Memorial. The memorial was dedicated in 1995. The complex is very moving. One outstanding feature is a squad of 19 stainless steel statues designed by Frank Gaylord, each larger than life-size. The figures represent a squad on patrol, drawn from each branch of the armed forces; fourteen of the figures are from the U.S. Army, three are from the Marine Corps, one is a Navy Corpsman, and one is an Air Force Forward Air Observer. They are dressed in full combat gear, dispersed among strips of granite and juniper bushes which represent the rugged terrain of Korea.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_W...

The Memorial appears to be, by far, Gaylord's largest commission and his major work. Other sculptures by this artist can be viewed at his website: http://www.frankgaylordsculpture.com/

Some images of the Memorial:

Agreed, Bea. It is a wonderfully moving tribute to those in the "forgotten war".

Another iconic sculpture is the Iwo Jima memorial in Arlington, VA, just across the Potomac from DC. I am lucky enough to know "Woody" Williams, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor on Iwo Jima.....he was my neighbor and he never spoke of it. He is the last living West Virginia CMOH winner. He is still active in veteran's affairs and in good health. An amazing man!!



Some information about Woody.

http://www.shadowwolf.org/woody.html

Here's a bit of sculpture that nobody talks about....well, almost nobody. But the Art Deco hood ornaments of the classic cars of the 1920-40s are small pieces of art and some were designed by noted artists. They are quite lovely and the height of the Art Deco movement.

Just an example: the 1940 Packard Goddess of Speed.

Wonderful. I've got a bunch of old New Yorker magazines from the '30's. I love to look at the advertisements, many of which are great pop art deco.

The largest Art Deco sculpture in the world:



Christo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, designed by Hector da Silva Costa, sculpted by Paul Landowski, monument opened 1931

Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_t...

Very Nice!!

There are several very nice pieces of art deco sculpture decorating Rockefeller Center, here in New York. The frieze over the entrance to the G.E. Building (formerly called the R.C.A. Building) at 30 Rockefeller Center is called "Wisdom." A bas-relief sculpture by the artist Lee Lawrie, it is based on a well-known image by William Blake called "The Ancient of Days." It includes a motto stating "Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times," from the book of Isaiah--probably particularly comforting words when Rockefeller Center was being built, in the early 1930s, during some of the bleakest years of the Great Depression.

Fabulous bas relief, Jonathan!

One of the most memorable visits I have made was to Napier, New Zealand. In 1931 the town was virtually flattened by an earthquake. It was rebuilt in the style of the day, Art Deco.

Here are some sculptures - the architecture is amazing as well:







Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier,_...

Very attractive. Interesting story about the earthquake and subsequent art-deco rebuilding effort. I had never heard of Napier before.

Bea, excellent posts - if you can add some books and authors who are featured and/or who may have written about any of these sculptures or sculptors, please add those as well as any other works about or by these artists. I am sure that a lot of folks would very much like to learn and read more.

Some books about Art Deco sculpture:

by Charlotte Benton (no photo)

by Alfred W. Edward (no photo)

by Tina Skinner

More curvy sculptures from the early 20th Century by Gaston Lachaise (born 1882 Paris, France - died 1935 - New York, New York, USA) sculptor of the bas reliefs at Rockefeller Center



La Montagne, 1924, Stanford Museum



"Genius Seizing the Light of the Sun", 1935, Rockefeller Center, New York, New York, USA



Floating Figure, National Gallery of Art, Canberra Australia


More information and images here:

http://www.lachaisefoundation.org/ind...


Louise Bourgeois(no photo)

Great adds.

If you are interested in more modern, avant-garde sculpture, this book covers works from 1945 until the present. Many illustrations but not much narrative.

by Andrew Causey

Although Auguste Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917), is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past. He was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art.

Sculpturally, Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay. Many of his most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. They clashed with the predominant figure sculpture tradition, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. Rodin's most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated individual character and physicality. Rodin was sensitive to the controversy surrounding his work, but refused to change his style. Successive works brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_...

Rodin sculpted this in 1877:

The Age of Bronze. 1877. Bronze, height 71 inches, Musée Rodin, Paris (Also known as "The Vanquished" or "The Awakening Man")

When first exhibited at the 1877 Salon in Paris, Rodin was falsely accused of having made the statue by casting a living model, a charge that was vigorously denied.

You can see a picture of the nude model and read about the bizarre (to me anyway) controversy about this sculpture here:

http://rodin-web.org/works/1875_age_b...

In 1891, the Société des Gens de Lettres commissioned Rodin to sculpt a monument to Balzac. The monument was to be delivered in 18 months but took Rodin 7 years to complete. The Societé rejected the sculpture when Rodin presented the plaster study in 1898. The sculpture was not cast in bronze until 1939, 22 years after Rodin's death.


Colossal Head of Balzac. 1897. Bronze, height 20 inches. Rodin Museum, Philadelphia.


Monument to Balzac, Hirschorn Museum, Washington DC

Here is a photograph of Balzac:



I know which image represents the essence of the author best to me!

by Rainer Maria Rilke
The great German poet was Rodin's secretary for a time. The essays in this book discuss Rodin's work and development as an artist.

by J. A. Schmoll
The artist and his mistress/model/fellow sculptor

Auguste Rodin (no cover image) by Auguste Rodin

Auguste Rodin

by Gilles Néret(no photo)

by Raphael Masson (no photo)
Publication of the Musée Rodin, Paris

Camille Claudel by Anne Delbée
Camille Claudel: A Life by Odile Ayral-Clause

Camille Claudel

It's interesting to see how she influenced him. Musée Rodin has many marvelous sculptures of both artists.

Thank you for those references, Andre! Poor Camille led quite a life as well as producing some remarkable work. I am going to try to watch the French film based on her life tonight.

Camille Claudel (8 December 1864 – 19 October 1943) studied at the Académie Colarossi with sculptor Alfred Boucher. (At the time, the École des Beaux-Arts barred women from enrolling to study.) Around 1884, she started working in Rodin's workshop. Claudel became a source of inspiration, his model, his confidante and lover. She never lived with Rodin, who was reluctant to end his 20-year relationship with Rose Beuret. In 1892, after an unwanted abortion, Claudel ended the intimate aspect of her relationship with Rodin, although they saw each other regularly until 1898.

In the early years of the 20th Century, Claudel had patrons, dealers, and some commercial success. Beginning in 1903, Claudel exhibited her works at the Salon des Artistes français or at the Salon d'Automne.

After 1905 Claudel appeared to be mentally ill. She destroyed many of her statues, disappeared for long periods of time, and exhibited signs of paranoia. She accused Rodin of stealing her ideas and of leading a conspiracy to kill her. Her father tried to help her and supported her financially. He died on 2 March 1913.

On 10 March 1913, at the initiative of her brother, she was admitted to the psychiatric hospital of Ville-Évrard in Neuilly-sur-Marne. While there are records to show that she did have mental outbursts, she was clear-headed while working on her art.

In 1914, to be safe from advancing German troops, Camille was transferred to the Montdevergues Asylum, at Montfavet. For a while, the press accused her family of committing a sculptor of genius. The hospital staff regularly proposed to her family that Claudel be released, but her mother adamantly refused each time. She died in the asylum at Montfavet in 1943.

Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_...



L'Age Mur ("The Age of Maturity") 1902, 3 part bronze, Musée Rodin, Paris



The Wave, 1897-1903?, onyx marble and bronze, Musée Rodin, Paris



Vertumnus and Pomona, 1905, white marble on red marble base, Musée Rodin, Paris

Camille Claudel

Bea wrote: "I am going to try to watch the French film based on her life tonight..."

The film is - well, taste differs - but the book is terrific:

Camille Claudel by Anne Delbée

Another month, another sculptor.

Umberto Boccioni (19 October 1882 – 17 August 1916) was an Italian painter and sculptor. Like other Futurists, his work centered on the portrayal of movement (dynamism), speed, and technology. He was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy.

Boccioni studied art through the Scuola Libera del Nudo at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, beginning in 1901. He also studied design with a sign painter in Rome. Together with his friend Gino Severini, he became a student of Giacomo Balla, a divisionist painter. In 1906, Boccioni studied Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles in Paris. During the late 1906 and early 1907, he shortly took drawing classes at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. In 1901, Boccioni first visited the Famiglia Artistica, a society for artists in Milan. After moving there in 1907, he became acquainted with fellow Futurists, including the famous poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. The two artists would later join with others in writing manifestos on Futurism.

Boccioni became the main theorist of the artistic movement. He also decided to be a sculptor after he visited various studios in Paris, in 1912, among which those of Braque, Archipenko, Brancusi, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and, probably, Medardo Rosso. While in 1912 he exhibited some paintings together with other Italian futurists at the Bernheim-Jeun, in 1913 he returned to show his sculptures at the Gallerie La Boetie: all related to the elaboration of what Boccioni had seen in Paris, they in their turn probably influenced the cubist sculptors, especially Duchamp-Villon.

In 1914, he published Pittura e scultura futuriste(dinamismo plastico) (note: not found on Goodreads) explaining the aesthetics of the group: “While the impressionists make a table to give one particular moment and subordinate the life of the table to its resemblance to this moment, we synthesize every moment (time, place, form, color-tone) and thus build the table.” He exhibited in London, together with the group, in 1912 (Sackville Gallery) and 1914 (Doré Gallery): the two exhibitions made a deep impression on a number of young English artists, in particular C.R.W. Nevinson, who joined the movement: others aligned themselves instead to its British equivalent, Vorticism, led by Wyndham Lewis.

Mobilized in the declaration of war, Boccioni was assigned to an artillery regiment at Sorte, near Verona. On 16 August 1916, Boccioni was thrown from his horse during a cavalry training exercise and was trampled. He died the following day, age thirty-three.



Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913, Bronze [cast 1931], height 43 7/8 inches. The Museum of Modern Art New York.

Critics have pointed out the above sculpture's strong, if coincidental, resemblance to the Nike of Samothrace (popularly known as the Winged Victory)



Greek, About 190 B.C., Marble, height 96 inches, The Louvre, Paris.



Umberto Boccioni, Visioni simultanee, about 1912, oil on canvas, Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, Germany

Is this art? What do you think of futurism? Any recommendations of other futurist sculptors that might interest the group?


by Caroline Tisdall (no photo)

by Ester Cohen (no photo)

by Umberto Boccioni (no photo)

Robert Falk.
Falk was born in Moscow in 1886. In 1903 to 1904 he studied art in the studios of Konstantin Yuon and Ilya Mashkov, in 1905 to 1909 he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture with Konstantin Korovin and Valentin Serov.

In 1910 he was of the founders and the most active participants of artistic group Jack of Diamonds. The group considered Paul Cézanne the only painter worth following, and the rest of visual art to be too trivial and bourgeois. The distinctive feature of Falk's paintings of the time was sculpturing of the form using many layers of different paints.

In 1918-1928 Falk taught at VKhUTEMAS (State Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops). In 1928 Falk went on a supposedly short trip to France and refused to return; he worked in Paris until 1938, when he returned to Moscow.

After 1938 until his death in 1958 he worked in Moscow, most of the time in isolation. His works of that time were in neo-impressionist style with characteristic white-on-white colors (not unlike the later paintings of his teacher Valentin Serov).

During the Khrushchev Thaw he became popular among young painters and many considered Falk to be the main bridge between the traditions of the Russian and French Moderne of the beginning of 20th century and Russian avant-garde and the Russian avant-garde of the 1960s.




Self portrait

Interesting that Falk would have returned to Russia while Stalin's purges were still ongoing and that he survived! It would be nice to know more of his story but I've been able to find out little about him.

Here's a book that mentions him:

by Peter Leek (no photo)

This is what I've been able to find on the Jack of Diamonds movement:


Jack of Diamonds, also called Knave Of Diamonds, was a group of artists founded in 1909 in Moscow. The group included Robert Falk, Aristarkh Lentulov, Ilya Mashkov, Alexander V. Kuprin, Alexander Osmerkin, Wladimir Burliuk, and Pyotr Konchalovsky. The Knave of Diamonds was a scandalous exhibition that opened in Moscow in December 1910. Subsequently the title was adopted by a newly formed artistic society in Moscow. Soon thereafter, this group became the largest and one of the most significant exhibition societies of the early Russian avant-garde. Their works demonstrate the artists’ interest in the developing of the new styles (Russian Primitivism, Russian Cezanneism, Moscow School of Neo-Primitivism, oth.) that emerged around their first exhibition as a result of their integrating folk art of the provinces in the artworks. Other new styles and genres, such as performance and body-art, emerged from this unlikely blending of fine European art, Russian folk art, and urban folk of the masses in Russia. The artistic significance of the individual members of The Knave of Diamonds aside, their activities conditioned a qualitative shift in Russian of the 1910s, among most important changes - democratization of the art society in Russia.

The name itself was coined by Mikhail Larionov for the exhibition of 1910. Among the famous painters that participated in the first Jack of Diamonds exhibition were Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Gontcharova, Kazimir Malevich (and later, Léopold Survage). Later Mikhail Larionov and his followers disagreed with the group's ethos and formed the more radical Donkey's Tail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_...

Here is what Falk and other Russian modern artists were up against:



Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, Vera Mukhina, Moscow

This work graces the Russian Exhibition Center, formerly known as the Exhibition of the People's Economy. From 1947, its image was the logo for Mosfilm, the state distributor of Soviet film.

[image error]

Vera Mukhina was born in Riga into a wealthy merchant family. She later moved to Moscow, where she studied at several private art schools, including those of Konstantin Yuon and Ilya Mashkov. In 1912 she traveled to Paris, where she attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and took lessons from Emile-Antoine Bourdelle, then continued on to Italy to explore the art and sculptures of the Renaissance period.

In the 1920s Mukhina rose to become one of the Soviet Union's most prominent sculptors, and although she continued to produce cubist sculpture as late as 1922, she became a leading figure of Socialist realism, both in style and ideology. She taught at the state school, Vkhutemas, in 1926-1927, and came to international attention with the 1937 Worker and Kolkhoz Woman.

Because of Muhkina's influence as a great Soviet artist, and as a former student of the Latvian sculptor Kārlis Zāle, she persuaded Soviet officials in the late 1940s that the Freedom Monument in Riga was of great artistic importance. Due to her efforts the monument was not demolished to make way for a statue of Joseph Stalin.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Muk...

Freedom Monument Riga, Latvia:


Designed by sculptor Kārlis Zāle

by Boris Groys

by Katerina Clark

Below is a link to the "25 Most Popular Sculptures in the World"......popular doesn't always mean the best but the majority of these are considered masterpieces and are on most lists.......from the The Thinker, Pieta and the Statue of Liberty to the Sphinx, it is a feast for the eyes.

http://amolife.com/image/art/top-25-m...

Sometimes art is popular because it is magnificent. That was awesome. Thank you, Jill.

There was another site that was even better but it had a comments section that contained some pretty profane language so I went with this one.

Grief by Augustus Saint-Gaudins

The Adams Memorial is a grave marker located in Section E of Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C., featuring a cast bronze allegorical sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The shrouded figure is seated against a granite block which forms one side of a hexagonal plot, designed by architect Stanford White.

Alberto Giacometti: Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings

by Angela Schneider(no photo)

Synopsis:

One of the great masters of 20th-century art, the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti captured the existential loneliness of modern humanity with his spindly, attenuated figures whose life-like gazes pierce the vastness of space. Uniting more than 250 sculptures, paintings, drawings and graphic works, this extensive monograph is an exemplary overview of his oeuvre. The book underscores the continuity between the two remarkable bodies of work that characterize his career: the pre-1935 works, which included the finest of all Surrealist sculptures, and the post-war masterpieces. As a result of a profound artistic crisis that began in 1934, when Giacometti returned to working from the model and thus broke with the Surrealists, the artist began tackling the problem of situating figures in space in an entirely new way. Painting played a key role in the solutions that Giacometti found to this problem, and the discussion here of the relationship between his two- and three-dimensional works reveals him to have been as great a painter as he was a sculptor. Contributions by several notable art historians address contemporary research issues and offer a comprehensive record of Giacometti's life and work. Among the many photographs of the artist and his circle are images by such notable photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ugo Mulas and Man Ray.

Constantin Brancusi

by Eric Shanes(no photo)

Synopsis:

With more than 100 illustrations -- approximately 48 in full color -- this innovative series offers a fresh look at the most creative and influential artists of the postwar era. Modern Masters form a perfect reference set for home, school, or library. Each handsomely designed volume presents: - A thorough survey of the artist's life and work

- Statements by the artist

- An illustrated chapter on technique

- Chronology

- Lists of exhibitions and public collections

- Annotated bibliography

- Index

In the Black Hill of South Dakota, stands the statue of Chief Crazy Horse, with the face of the Chief carved into the mountain shown in the background of this photo. Magnificent!!

Yes it is

One of the greatest!!!

Rodin

by Raphael Masson(no photo)

Synopsis:

Rodin, the first authoritative monograph from the Musee Rodin, is written by the museum's leading experts, with a foreword from its director. All facets of the artist's life and art are explored in chapters that cover the artistic context of the day, his education, the commission of The Gates of Hell, his relationship with Camille Claudel, his monuments, the exhibition that brought him international acclaim, his studios, his sources of inspiration, from dance and eroticism to poetry and cathedrals, the final years of his life, and the international museums dedicated to his incomparable art, along with a detailed chronology and bibliography. Studies of key works, which include sculpture, drawings, engravings, and paintings, are illustrated in photographs commissioned for this publication.
Rodin created much controversy in his lifetime (1840-1917); his passionate sculptures met criticism from conservatives but adoration from the avant-garde. Today he is revered as a forward-thinker who took a decisive step away from the dry, academic art of the 19th century toward a freer, more expressive style that foreshadowed modernism and abstract sculpture.

A "must-have' book for the art lover.

Sculpture

by Georges Duby

Synopsis:

A sweeping study of the greatest sculptures of all time. Ranging from ancient to contemporary sculpture, this book is the first study of the history of sculpture to present such an original and comprehensive approach. Taking the sculptures out of the museum context (and thus off of their proverbial pedestals), Sculpture presents a completely new view which affords enlightening comparisons between eras and genres. This remarkable work is indispensable for artlovers of all tastes and disciplines

A review of the "new age" of sculpture.

Sculpture Since 1945

by Andrew Causey (no photo)

Synopsis

Since 1945 the modern revolution in sculpture has gathered pace, and even the term sculpture has ceased to be the fixed category it once was. In Sculpture Since 1945, Andrew Causey provides a ground-breaking account of the development of post-War sculpture.
In over 130 beautiful illustrations, Causey examines innovative and avant-garde works in relation to contemporary events, festivals, commissions, the marketplace, and the changing functions of museums. He also explores the use of everyday objects and the importance of sculptural context, discussing figurative and non-figurative works, Anti-form, Minimalism, experimental form, Earth art, landscape sculpture, installation, and performance art. A final chapter brings the discussion of sculpture right up to the present day by examining sculpture since 1980. The holistic picture of post-War sculpture which emerges in Sculpture Since 1945 establishes for the first time key events and themes around which future debate will center.(

A fun look at the sculptor who created the Statue of Liberty......she is not what he intended at all.

Lady With a Past

by Elizabeth Mitchell

Synopsis:

Much of what you learned in grade school about our most beloved American icon is wrong. For starters, the Statue of Liberty was originally meant for Egypt, conceived to be a slave greeting travelers on the Suez Canal. And when instead she landed on American shores, she wasn’t an outright gift from France, but the remarkable scheme of a grandiose Frenchman who tried to hustle everyone from Ulysses S. Grant to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in an attempt to get his colossus built—somewhere.

In this surprising and entertaining biography of America's most famous metal Amazon, Elizabeth Mitchell, provides a portrait of not just the Statue of Liberty but her deluded creator. Powered by fierce ambition and ego, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi spent nearly two decades building Lady Liberty, which he considered to be less a symbol of freedom than a monument to himself. In Bartholdi's remarkable, mostly overlooked diary and in colorful letters to his mother—the model for Liberty's imposing face—Mitchell finds a comically self-serving artiste who looks down his Gallic nose at the young and burgeoning United States.

One of the most beautiful and sacred sculptures in the world.

The Pieta

I totally agree. This sculpture can bring you to tears with its beauty, even if you are not Christian or religious.

Italian Baroque Sculpture

by Bruce Boucher(no photo)

Synopsis:

Italian baroque sculpture often has been criticized for portraying a sham world, distracting the spectator from its spiritual poverty by dazzling technical displays. Bruce Boucher offers a fresh view of this rich and varied subject, published to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the births of 17th-century artists Bernini and Algardi. 200 illustrations. 35 in color.

When you see this beautiful piece of work, you can understand the name of this book.......you feel that if you touch it, you will feel the give of the flesh and the temperature of the body. Unreal piece of art.

From Marble to Flesh: The Biography of Michelangelo's David

by A. Victor Coonin

Synopsis:

Michelangelo's David is the world s most famous statue, a universal symbol of Florence and of Italy. Hailed as the epitome of Renaissance art, the David has inspired contemporary artists from Warhol to Banksy and has been reproduced in life-size copies all over the globe. Why does a 500-year-old statue of a religious figure continue to resonate so deeply today? The answer lies in the captivating story of Michelangelo s David. It is a tale rich in conflict, tension, controversy and cultural meaning. Author Victor Coonin tells this story not as ancient history but as a centuries-long biography right up to the present day. What started simply as a monumental block of Carrara marble took on new vigour in Michelangelo s gifted hands. The statue is both life-like and larger than life: an embodiment of human accomplishment, of perfection, magnificence and beauty. The David has a life of his own, and this life succeeds in telling us something about ourselves.

There is so much beautiful sculpture by the Old Masters that we often overlook some of the dramatic work of modern artists. This book gives us an overview of their work.

Sculpture Today

by Judith Collins(no photo)

Synopsis:

The only book to provide such a broad and richly illustrated overview of contemporary sculpture
- Thematic chapters examine the diverse subjects that have inspired sculptors in recent years, including the body, nature, colour, light, architecture and minimalism
- An extensive range of works is discussed, offering an insight into the incredible variety of ideas, styles, materials, techniques and locations explored in this versatile genre
- Authoritative yet accessible text ensures the book's appeal