The history of Metal Sculptures

Good day dear community, I would like to wish you all a pleasant day and hope you have had numerous positive experiences! In this post, I would like to go into art history and hope you can learn new things.

Here you can see pictures of various sculptures that have been made of metal and highlight this remarkable art form extremely well and in general the term sculpture refers to a three-dimensional work of art. Already in ancient cultures it was popular to use various metals for the production of sculptures and one of the most important basic prerequisites was a high occurrence of different metals and this art form began about 10,000 years ago during the Copper Age, however, at the beginning the copper was only used for the production mostly for the production of everyday objects and it was rather rare that sculptures were formed from it and during the Bronze Age were more and more figures created and were based on motifs such as animals, people or mythological themes and in the traditional way, wax was used for the production of the basic form sculptures and already some indigenous people have used wax to melt out their figures. Over the millennia, there were many changes in the production process and the technical aspects have been adapted again and again and numerous different styles have been created and metal for the production of sculptures has shaped pretty much every important art era and a good example is ancient Greece and Rome where the sculptures looked particularly detailed as well as realistic and the artists were mostly oriented towards historical or mythological themes. Often different sculptures of deities were created from metal that also had a great cult status and the techniques of production quickly expanded into other countries and it also led at the same time to the fact that there was an increasing demand for metals and trade has been expanded and this also resulted that more and more mines being built and the metals were brought to the destinations via different trade routes.

The Greeks have set a important example and also in the Roman Empire they followed the ideals of the Greeks and decided to adopt some techniques and it were mostly wealthy people who created bronze figures of themselves and at the same time this topic also developed in Egypt and the Greeks are also considered pioneers there. For the creation of smaller sculptures, noble metal such as silver or gold was also used and in the Middle Ages sculpture flourished and numerous rulers like Charlemagne from the Carolingian dynasty were inspired by it and was considered a supporter and in the coming centuries and art epochs, metal art was also increasingly adapted and with industrialization, the traditional production processes was changed, but there were numerous artists who have remained faithful to traditional work. Bronze has the advantage of having a good steadfastness and is in good condition even after centuries and to this day bronze is still one of the most popular materials for creating sculptures and the creation of figures made of bronze has still a high priority among artists today. Today's technique for creating the sculptures is always very similar and first it is about preforming the desired object which is then poured over the metal and here, too, traditional work is still done today and the models are created from wax and other artists work with clay or plaster. After the modeling, the sculpture is covered with a coat and here it is particularly popular to use silicone and then the raw shape is covered with liquid bronze, but the production process can always vary greatly.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about art! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.