vince’s ear

The artist known as Donatello was one of the most important sculptors in Italy in the fifteenth century. He is considered one of the founding fathers of the Renaissance. His innovative styles, including making shadow relief sculptures, involved the newly discovered developments in perspectival illusion. Like many budding artists of the time, Donatello had his artistic beginnings in goldsmith. Soon, however, he moved to Rome where he met and studied with the architect Filippo Brunelleschi. The two men together laid the foundation for the emerging Italian Renaissance, while Brunelleschi was taking measurements of the Pantheon Dome and Donatello was developing his style. Their work was characteristic of the spirit of the Renaissance and both the architecture of one and the sculpture of the other would have a profound effect of the painters of the era.

Donatello’s work was innovative and creatively unique. The enormous Saint John the Evangelist, with its realistic humanity, marked a change from late Gothic styles to an age where naturalism and the rendering of human feelings was sought. While the head was still idealized like earlier sculpture, the hands, and legs are very realistic. He also created the first known use of central-point perspective with the bas-relief Saint George and the Dragon. The technique known as stiaciatto, a form of bas-relief, was invented by Donatello and has been explained as “drawing in marble.” In his works following these, mostly niche works and other sculpture for cathedrals, his expression became more and more realistic as well as emotionally charged. He freely used classical examples for inspiration and used themes from the Antique.

In the 1420s , partnering with Michelozzo, he produced a funerary monument for the Antipope John XXIII. This would highly influence tomb design, with its use of classical architectural designs, along with the Three Virtues and Madonna and Child. It was considered to be “picturesque classicism.” Donatello created in 1445 to 1450 the first equestrian monument since classic times. The Gattamallata horseback rider was made for the Piazza del Santo and was made around the same time as the High Altar of the Santo.

The altar contained reliefs with highly perspectival scenes with crowded figures which would later influence painters such as Andrea Mantegna and Michael Pacher. His works such as David (seen above) , Judith and Holofernes, and Mary Magdalene possessed an expressive quality never before seen. He was highly influential in all the arts in Italy over the next century and his power of expression remained unmatched, perhaps until Michelangelo came along.

That is one big bee next to that sculpture, isn’t it? Where’d they find such a large bee? Oh wait! That’s a real bee we’re seeing, only that sculpture is actually that small. Is that even possible?

Last post we saw some of Ron Mueck’s amazing people, including the behemoth Boy. The extremely lifelike boy crouches down yet still towers above spectators at thirty feet high. But let’s take a look at the other end of the spectrum here. We’ve practically gone from planetary to atomic when we see these things.

I’m talking about microminiatures. You’ve heard of miniature sculpture but this is ridiculous. Some pieces sit on a pin head. At the museum one needs to actually peer through a telescope to see the details of these tiny artworks.

Nikolai Syadristy

One of the leading microminiature sculptors is the Ukranian artist Nikolai Syadristy. His works are considered to be some of the smallest works of art in the world. One of his works is a book, which is definitely the smallest in the world, being .6 square millimeters small. With 12 pages, it actually contains real poetry you can read- with the help of a magnifying glass, of course.

This amazing artist used to be an engineer and only does the microminiature work part time. He is now an author and most of his time is spent being an underwater athlete, believe it or not. But when he’s not writing or swimming, he’s constructing some of the smallest pieces of art possible.

To make the sculptures, Syadristy must hold his breath to keep his hand steady. He even needs to work in between heart beats, lest he make a mistake from the movement. The miniatures are made from tools you can barely see with the naked eye, by hand with no help from machines. And I complain about having to hold my hand steady when painting.

Heard of travel chess, the portable chess sets you can take anywhere? How about the kind on top of a pin? Syadristy’s Chessmen sits on a pin head and shows a chess board with pieces in the position of a real game played between chess masters. That’s pretty small. One piece called Swallows shows birds in a nest in half a poppy seed. Think about it- that’s a sculpture fitting into roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence.

You know the expression about playing the world’s tiniest violin. Well here it is- it’s just over 3 mm long.

Syadristy has had a prolific and varied career and continues to receive acclaim from across the world, where his work is shown on all continents. Let’s hope he continues to make these tiny miniatures and he’ll doubtlessly never cease to amaze us. One only wonders what the man can achieve next.

Maybe he’ll carve a bird’s nest out of an atom.

Technorati Tags: miniature, sculpture, art, sculptor, ukranian, nanotechnology

Hyperrealism

Some mannequins and statues seem like they’re about to blink, turn to you, or jump out at you at any moment. They don’t seem like inanimate material or something fake. Rather they are like flesh and blood right before your eyes. There’s nothing ideal about them. What you see is an exact 3 dimensional replication of people. This is true of the sculptures of Ron Mueck. Well, “exact” except for size, in most cases.

A realist is any artist who uses their medium to portray subjects realistically from nature. Ron Mueck is what you call a hyperrealist. Like the photorealists such as Chuck Close, hyperrealist painters and sculptors take realism to the next level with a phenomenal attention to detail, being sure to include every hair, every goosebump.

Mueck was born in Australia and is based in Great Britain presently. He started out with puppetry and model making work in fantasy flicks like the 1986 film Labyrinth. Ten years after Labyrinth, the model maker decided to go solo and made the transition into the fine arts with his first major piece Dead Dad.

Scale: Miniature to Monumental

One of the things that sets this artist apart from contemporary sculptors is his use of manipulating scale. This can have a profound psychological effect on us. His people can be meant to tower over us and make us feel insignificant, like Boy (seen above), or on the other hand give us a glimpse at death by showing us a reduced version of a recently living human (such as Dead Dad).

Indeed most of the sculptures are not exactly life size. Dead Dad is only three feet long, while Boy is over thirty feet tall. Most are in between with some people about 1/2 size like the Angel, and others much larger than life like the woman in bed. One of my favorite works is the small old women. Extremely lifelike, as all of the works are, these women are more than just miniature copies of people. It shows emotion- ladies standing secretively gossiping away. They may as well be talking about one of the museum goers.

How Does He Do It?

Most of what you’re looking at is fiberglass or silicon. Much of the larger scale works are mostly fiberglass, save for certain features such as the face, which is silicon so hair can be made to look like it’s growing right out the skin. Much like the methods used for bronze casting, Mueck’s sculptures involve a process of molding and casting.

• First, small studies are made in either plaster or clay until the artist is satisfied with the “pose.”
• Next, a larger armature is made and wrapped in bandages soaked in plaster. Clay is molded around this armature.
• The clay is sculpted to form the person- clay is scraped, smoothed and detailed until the final look is achieved.
• A varnish is applied to the clay, to prevent cracking from taking the mold in the next step.
• Silicon is brushed directly over the figure to form a mold. This silicon will retain every detail. Fiberglass is added to make a sturdy, yet somewhat flexible mold.
• A wooden frame is built around the mold, and is attached to it. The frame is temporarily set aside.
• The mold is carefully removed- at this point the original clay sculpture is not needed and is discarded, the important thing is the mold itself now.
• The mold is put back in the wooden frame and it is ready for casting.
• Before actual casting, a colored resin is painted on the inside of the mold where needed- fingers, where the blood flows close to the skin, etc.
• Another thicker layer of resin is added called the “gel coat.”
• Then fiberglass is filled in, save for the face, and set overnight.
• The mold is carefully removed and the silicon face attached.
• At this point veins, blemishes, shaved hair follicles, etc. are painted on.
• A matte varnish is painted on the body, hair and eyelashes are attached, final details are painted.

It’s a long process but obviously worth it in the end.

Parallels

It’s hard to find much in depth on the highly unique artist himself and I’m not sure where he gets his inspiration. I do, however, notice some similarities in his work to the British painter Lucien Freud. Mueck’s showing of every little imperfection reminds me of Freud’s unforgiving portraits. I look at Mueck’s Big Man and think of Freud’s Nude. I also see Spooning Couple and think of other Freud sleeping paintings.

There’s more than just visual comparisons. There’s also that mood you get when looking at a sculpture by Ron Mueck, which is akin to the somber feeling of Freud’s neutral-colored and melancholy paintings.

Wherever he gets his inspiration, his work is more than just life-like- it’s human. Most of the work is very somber and emotional- with pregnant women, mothers, dead fathers, insecure boys, and just people being people. I’ve seen some hyperrealist sculpture and paintings where it seems that it’s just trying to copy exactly. That can not be said of Ron Mueck’s sculpture, because a mere copy would not be great art. His portrayal of the human form as well as his insight into the human essence is more real than real- it is perfect.

Major Mueck exhibitions have been at the Royal Scottish Academy Building, the Brooklyn Museum and the Modern Museum of Forth Worth. Currently a show is being held at the Warhol in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and I would really like to go to it if I can. It’s there until March 30th, two weeks from now. I’ll have to let you know how it goes. I know I couldn’t possibly be disappointed.

Larger Than Life Statue By A Larger Than Life Sculptor

When you look at this statue, what do you see? No doubt you are looking at the single most recognized sculpture in all of human history. Show a photo of the Renaissance sculpture to anybody, even a young child, and I’m sure they’ll be able to tell you at least the title, if not the sculptor. Is there another statue that epitomizes the beauty of the human body like this? Is there such a stone, marble, or block of clay which exhibits such precise human anatomy?

This statue is the achievement of a lifetime for Florentine artist Michelangelo Bounarotti and the high point of an enlightened period of history. It is David, the biblical king, who slew the giant Goliath.

A Young Shepherd Who Became King

David, the Israelite, son of Jesse, was a young man of not much consequence who guarded his father’s sheep. By chance he ended up in the service of King Saul to play the harp, because he was very gifted musically, to soothe the king when he was mentally tormented by demons. When the Israelites are in camp, facing the dreadful armies of the Philistines, David simply brings food for his brothers and the king.

A champion of gargantuan proportions came to the front lines to challenge the Israelites in single one on one combat to decide the battle. Of course, the enemy forces were confident in their soon victory and the home camp didn’t know what to do. David, overhearing this rises to the challenge with an idea. The boy, being the youngest son of Jesse, was not thought of as a fierce warrior. So when the king heard David’s claims, he laughed at first, but reluctantly allowed the match, seeing no other choice.

The enemy forces at once erupted in laughter when the saw the young and slender shepherd boy accepting the challenge of the giant. The fight, however, did not take long, after the boy produces a simple sling and stone. With one sure shot he fired the projectile and hit the giant between the eyes, sure and true, killing the warrior instantly. Before the monster could hit the ground the enemies were fleeing in fear, thus securing the Israelite victory. David is hailed as a hero, made a commander of men, and wins many victories as well as the hearts of the people, eventually landing himself in the throne.

Recreating the Biblical David

During the Renaissance we saw a return to classical themes, to include many biblical stories. The story of David and Goliath is a popular one in art history and has been reproduced by painters and sculptors alike. After the Renaissance the painter Caravaggio would repeatedly return to the subject, even painting himself as the severed giant’s head, exposing his own fear of decapitation, as a result of a tortured life on the run from the authorities.

In terms of sculpture, many of the Renaissance’s greatest sculptors attempted the David and Goliath. Let’s first look at two earlier renditions.

Donatello (1430-1440)

• Donatello’s bronze David was the first male nude single standing sculpture since antiquity, so when it was unveiled, it caused quite a sensation.
• What we see is David after the fight, with a small smile on his face, with his foot on the head of the giant.
• David here is overconfident, knowing God is on his side, as he stands nonchalantly with hip out, hand on other hip.
• Decidedly the most effeminate of the Davids.

Andrea del Verrocchio (1476)

• Verrocchio’s bronze statue of David once again shows a very young a frail looking boy with a sword, after the battle.
• Like Donatello’s, the head of the slain giant rests on the ground, but this time next to David’s foot as opposed to under it; some historians have argued that Donatello intended the head to be between the feet.
• This sculpture is very similar to Donatello’s including the posture, and effeminate nature.
• Verrocchio intended the David to symbolize Florence: both were stronger than they seemed, and both were rising powers.

Michelangelo Bounarroti (1504)

• The Michelangelo is the only case where we see David before the battle. He holds the single stone in his right hand and the sling in his left, as he gazes, with a human uncertainty at the giant (close inspection shows intense eyebrows, and a piercing look from very human eyes). There is no sign of Goliath in the statue itself.
• The two notable Davids before this were bronze, Michelangelo carved his out of a giant block of marble.
• Truly larger than life, the statue is 17 feet tall.
• Unlike the others which have at least one article of clothing, Michelangelo’s David is completely nude.
• The artist was only 26 when he received the commission, and completed the sculpture in three years.
• Notice the proportions are somewhat off: the head and upper body are slightly larger than they would normally be. The statue might have originally been meant to be on a roof, where the viewers looking up at the statue would have seen correct proportions.
• Questions have arisen due to the statue’s historical accuracy regarding the genitalia of David. The King David of the bible would have been circumcised, yet this version shows an uncircumcised penis. Some have conjectured that Michelangelo did this purposely, adhering to the ancient Greek ideology that a circumcised penis is considered mutilated. The small size of the genitalia is possibly for effect: a larger member may distract from the statue as a whole.
• Queen Victoria was so shocked by the statue’s unapologetic nudity, that she commissioned a fig leaf to cover the genitalia. This fig leaf was kept on premise for subsequent royal visits.

Many Davids were produced after Michelangelo notably Giovani Lorenzo Bernini in 1624, and Antonin Mercie, much later in 1873, as well as many others. My conclusion is that none of them compare to Michelangelo’s David. Its mastery, its beauty and its glory surpass all other Davids before and after, and arguably all other sculptures in the history of art.

Technorati Tags: michelangelo, florence, renaissance, art, sculpture, sculptor, david

Auguste Rodin

Yesterday you saw how the casting of bronze sculptures is done on the How Is A Sculpture Made? post. Today I want to show you who made them, namely one of the most famous bronze sculptors of the nineteenth century.

The French artist Auguste Rodin was considered one of the most important sculptors in his time for bringing the art back after it had taken a backstage importance to the public. At around that time sculpture was largely for decoration only, but he succeeded in turning the art into a form of expression. His attention to detail to human anatomy and his great skill have given us a mastery of human portrayal in sculpture which to this day has not been surpassed.

Like many of the best artists in history, Rodin was born into the lower class and had a rough and tumble early career, barely making ends meet. For over twenty years he performed menial sculpting tasks just to pay the bills. There is a sculpture of a head at the Philadelphia Rodin Museum with the back of it missing, due to the artist not being able to afford heat, thus causing the clay to break off in the freezing cold. He kept trying to get somewhere but suffered rejection after rejection.

Finally his big break came when he escaped from Paris, thus liberating him from academic art. He moved to Italy, where he got a healthy dose of some of the fine sculptures and statuary there. It was there where he was inspired by the works of Michelangelo Bounarotti, particularly Dying Slave, and created his first major work, The Age of Bronze. This statue had caused controversy because it was so lifelike that critics said he had cast a mold of a live model. This helped his rise to fame. In 1880 the statue was purchased by the State.

Soon after Rodin received other commissions by the State to include the monumental Gates of Hell. This project would obsess the artist for the rest of his life, and it would never be fully completed. Many of the figures on the Gates were reproduced in greater size, including The Kiss, and the famous Thinker.

Another great work by Rodin is the Burghers of Calais. The story goes that when the French city of Calais was besieged by Edward III in the Hundred Years War, the whole town was ordered to be slaughtered. An agreement was made however that the townspeople would be spared if six of the prominent citizens offered their heads instead. So six volunteered to save the population, but were pardon when the Queen convinced Edward to let them live. Rodin was commissioned to commemorate these six heroes. His sculpture shows the men with ropes around their necks, holding the keys to the city, separate from each other and walking in a circle, uneasy about their fates. The statue weighs two tons, and is meant to be placed at ground level so the viewers can walk around it and “penetrate to the heart of the subject.”

These statues, as well as the Gates themselves have been reproduced by the artist himself numerous times and can now be seen in Philadelphia, Paris, and many other places across the globe. There are at least 60 Thinkers known. If you’re ever in Philadelphia and make it to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, don’t forget to stop by the Rodin museum just up the street. It’s the largest and most important Rodin collection outside of Paris, and has all the sculptures I talked about above.

I’m sure I can safely assume you’re not wondering how one carves or molds a sculpture. Although the carving and modeling methods require great skill, the techniques used are fairly simple- you basically use tools and your bare hands to “add” or “subtract” material until you get your desired product. Once you have carved away from a stone or other hard surface, you can sand it and polish it. If you were carving from clay the last step would be to fire it in a kiln or heat it in an oven.

But how are bronze and other cast sculptures made? It’s not like there’s a chunk of metal and the sculptor chisels away at it. Casting is a little more complicated than the other two types of sculpture. It takes a team of several people, a foundry, and a 10 step process that has been around since 3000 B.C. When completed, you will have a work of art that will be around for that same amount of time into the future.

In a nutshell founders reproduce in bronze a sculptor’s plaster original. The process is a back and forth system of molding until the final mold is made to withstand molten bronze. This is how it goes:

1. The sculptor creates a model, usually plaster, to send to the foundry.
2. Using elastic material in a solid container, the founder makes a mold of the model.
3. The mold is used to make a model of fireproof cement that will serve as the core of the bronze during casting. Iron shafts are inserted to make sure it remains stationary within the mold.
4. The surface of the core is worn down, creating a narrow space between it and the mold.
5. Melted wax is poured into the mold, filling the space between it and the cement core. The mold is then removed, revealing the core shape covered with a layer of wax. The artist’s signature, the casting number, and the foundry stamp are imprinted in the wax.
6. A network of conduits is created to allow the melted wax to run out of the mold when it is heated. Later the conduits will also be used to pour in the molten metal.
7. A second mold is created of fireproof clay. When it is sufficiently thick, and throughly dry, it is heated, both to melt the wax and to harden the clay.
8. The fireproof mold is then covered by an exterior mantle of fireproof cement.
9. The mold is fired at high temperature. Molten bronze (2850° F) is poured into the space formerly occupied by the wax. After the bronze cools, the mold is broken to reveal a bronze replica of the model.
10. The conduits and other protuberances are removed from the bronze figure, which is then finished with chisels, polished, and treated with chemical solutions to give its surface the desired patina.

So there you have it. An artist can have their sculptures cast in bronze by sending it to a founder and paying them to do all the hard work. After all, you’ve done the easy part by creating the object in the first place. It must be interesting to see the final result, one of your own sculptures actually made in bronze, to be around forever.

Next we’ll be looking at one of the most famous of the bronze sculptors, Auguste Rodin. That’s his in the picture above, taken at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, the largest Rodin collection outside of Paris.

After doing all the posts about How To Paint, I realized not everybody is going to be able to jump right into art with a paint brush. Oil painting can take quite some time to get the hang of, I know I’m still learning. But one method of self expression I can wholeheartedly suggest to any newbie artist is sculpting.

Perceptions

In reality our brains constantly gauge distance and depth subconsciously without an effort on our part. We know, through pattern assessments, what effort it will take to walk from point A to point B, that the apple will look similar to the point of view we see it on the other side of it, and that people are full of curves, contours, and depth just by looking at them. We spend our whole waking and non-waking lives in the 3rd dimension. That’s why creating 3 dimensional art can be easier than on paper or canvas.

When we paint, we must give the illusion of depth and distance, thus making the artwork 3 dimensional in our minds. We worry about shadow and light, size and shape of objects, and how the viewer can perceive them to be real. When sculpting, nature takes care of all of this. Looking at a sculpture of a person, even an abstract representation of one, our minds make out what it is by just the basic shapes. All light and shadow exist naturally within the art object based on its curves, crevices, and formations. Instead of working to represent an object, you are actually making the object.

Mediums

We all remember modeling clay when we were in kindergarten and how much fun it was to use. Unfortunately we moved on to sentences and basic math, and as we progress through school our left brain studies we neglected our creativity more and more. That’s just life, I suppose, but it would be a truly liberating feeling to be able to create like in kindergarten.

Of course modeling clay is ideal for school children because it never hardens and can be used again and again, like silly putty or other substances. I guess the next step up would PlayDough, remember that? For the novice artist or professional, one would need a much more stable material. Nowadays I use something called Stonex, a self-hardening clay. This is ideal for me, as I don’t need to heat it for it to dry, and it hardens nicely.

Of course there’s pros and cons to everything. Stonex can be extremely brittle and you must be very careful with it. When it dries sometimes it seems to dry too much. I showed a sculpture of a laying down person with the leg broken off and someone asked if it was a happy accident. I wouldn’t be happy if my leg suddenly broke off.

An alternative to Stonex could be Sculpey, a versatile artist’s clay. This you’ll need to heat in a regular oven at about 250 for about 10 minutes. Not too bad, just an extra step, but when it comes out it hardens nicely, and is nowhere near as brittle as Stonex. The only drawback for me with Sculpey is it’s properties. While Stonex is hard to the touch when working with it, Sculpey can be very soft and rubbery almost, thus it drags a little when you sculpt. But you can get used to it.

Stonex and Sculpey can both be bought at your regular arts and crafts store relatively inexpensive. The more into you get you may consider trying actual red clay or ceramics. These are usually not for novices as you’ll need access to a kiln to heat the clay at extremely high temperatures. With the high temperature comes risks as well, the higher the temperature the more chance of something going wrong. You’ll need the temperature just right, the amount of moisture in the material, and several other factors could lead to cracking and just not coming out right.

Methods and Tools of the Trade

Michelangelo said, “The sculpture is already inside the rock, all you have to do is remove the excess stone.” This was Michelangelo’s trade of choice. He didn’t consider himself a painter (looking at the Sistene ceiling I’d say he was a hell of a painter). His method was “subtracting” from stone with chisels and other materials, sanding out and detailing the finished product. This is extremely advanced and difficult. If you finish the whole thing then chip off the nose, that’s it. No nose for statue.

Carving into wood, or sculpting into terracotta are other subtracting methods. In my amateur methods I spoke of earlier, we kind of use a give and take, add and subtract method, which is why it’s so easy to learn and do. I use sculpting tools you can find at your arts and crafts store. Sometimes it’s best to try to use the bare minimum of tools, that way you just flow with the artwork and not have to worry about unnecessary too changes. One time I sculpted a whole piece with nothing but a steak knife. With a lack of materials, you can always find a way.

Another advanced method of adding would be to make molds and eventually fire the final product in bronze. This is a several step process and complicated and involves going from mold to sculpture back to mold again, and once again involves extremely high temperatures. Auguste Rodin used this method when making his bronze sculptures.

Pottery is another way you can sculpt and fairly easy. I went from Michelangelo to Rodin to clay pots, but I never said this article was linear. But hey, Picasso was also a potter. Pottery can be a very creative art. Once you have your pots and cups you can paint them how you like. It looks easy but I’m sure it’s harder than it looks. I had the opportunity to see someone making little clay teacups with a pottery wheel. I didn’t get to try it, but I almost asked if I could.

It being the first Friday of the month, Im going to head up to Old City, Philadelphia where I saw this demonstration at the Clay Studio. They have a good exhibition each month and usually rotate artists and artwork monthly. My favorite was an exhibition of un-usable pottery. I know I probably butchered the title of the exhibit but basically it showed a whole bunch of bowls with holes in the bottom and half-cups and what-not. Pretty creative.

Well I hope didn’t miss any methods of sculpting, if I did, let me know. Now I’m off to see the galleries of up and coming local artists. Maybe I’ll be able to do a post on some of them tomorrow.

Until then, take care.

Technorati Tags: art, artist, sculpture, sculptor, michelangelo, rodin

This is the second post in a series documenting my photo-journalist efforts to capture every statue and sculpture in and around the city of Philadelphia on my SLR camera. You can read the first post here: Sculpture and Statuary in Philadelphia Part 1 , and I highly recommend checking out the new shots, as well as the ones from the first expedition at my Philadelphia Statues photo gallery.

Attempting to shoot every statue in the city is quite a challenge, but an exhilarating one. It’s a lot of fun being a tourist in your own city because I guarantee most city dwellers would find all kinds of new and exiting artifacts all over their town if they just went and looked. As I have said before, if you have any suggestions on what I can take pictures of, especially around Philly, let me know in the comments. I hope you enjoy this post and the photos. I plan on making many more from my ongoing excursions downtown, and as a travel companion I hope you enjoy the trip as well.

Founders, Statesmen, and Ghosts?

I especially had a lot of fun with this one, as there is a bit of a story behind it (as is I’m sure of all these statues). The statue is of the founder of my state, William Penn, hence Pennsylvania, or “Penn’s Woods.” In this statue he holds the land charter given to him by Charles II in 1681 to repay a debt owed to his father, Admiral Penn. This is the largest land charter in history. William Penn is a prominent figure in U.S. history, contributing to the uniting of the colonies to become the United States, and his Pennsylvania frames of government would inspire the democratic principles of the United States Constitution.

The statue above rests in the garden of the Pennsylvania Hospital. But some folks may argue against my choosing of the word “rests” as there is quite a legend behind this particular monument. The monument itself had strange beginnings as it was found by mistake by Penn’s grandson in London and bought for a negligible price. It was later donated to the hospital where it has remained since.

Legend has it that the old statue steps down from its pedestal every night and wanders the garden. Could this strange specter be the ghost of old Willie Penn haunting the garden? Could the statue be restless and wander for a nightly stroll? Some stories have it that every New Years Eve, the Penn statue comes to life and walks the Earth.

You know where I’ll be late New Years Eve this year. OK, maybe not, but it still makes for an interesting story. Now this next fellow of Philadelphia prominence I recognized a block away. I talked about him a little here about half way through the post. It is none other than my favorite surgeon, Dr. Samuel Gross depicted in Thomas Eakins’ “The Gross Clinic.”

“The Gross Clinic” was almost bought by the Walton family of Walmart for $68 million but was thankfully overbid by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Wachovia, Pew Charitable Trust and many other public and private donors. The painting shows Samuel Gross, scalpel in hand, conducting surgery on a boy in a classroom at Thomas Jefferson University. The painting at first received little praise but has since been recognized as Eakins’ masterpiece.

Throughout the city you find statues of many statesmen from throughout U.S. history. Here are Commodore John Barry, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Robert Morris.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art

In the first post I showed a whole bunch of statues from around the Philadelphia Museum of Art and in and around the Rodin Museum. In this post I will emphasize some of the statues from the collection inside the art museum. Unfortunately there are just too many to include so I’ll show below some of my favorites. Be sure to check out the gallery to see some of the many sculptures found in the permanent collection, once again too many to include. I hope to include more in subsequent posts.

Why not start off with a head of our dear old Ben Franklin. Now this jolly fellow had so much to do with Philadelphia and the founding of our country that I won’t even go into it, but direct you to this article if you’re interested.

Click the thumbnail for larger version. It was funny as I took this picture a man came up with his daughter and asked her “who’s that?” She then of course replied Benjamin Franklin! She also added that the bust off to the left in this picture is his wife. I got a good laugh from that. He sits here in the American collection of the museum.

These next couple of shots are just a few of the sculpture pictures I took that were in the early American and European collections. The rest you can find in the Sculptures Gallery, as will the rest of the more modern ones which I will show you here after these next few pictures.

By the way the last Rodin sculpture above was difficult to shoot because I couldn’t get in front of it. The reason was because it was After 5 at the museum on Friday night and the place was swarming with people, and this one being near the bar made it next to impossible to stand in one spot to take a picture. I’ll explain Friday after 5 in a later post about the museum itself.

And for the viewer with more modern tastes, these shots are from the American collections and Modern and Contemporary Art collections. I’ll start it with one of Duchamp’s most famous works of art, his “Fountain.” I talk a little about it here.

The Perelman Building

Speaking of modern art, I’ll go ahead and plug the newest addition to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Ruth and Raymond G Perelman building. The museum’s only addition in 80 years, it houses many examples of modern art and textiles, to include a nice collection of sculptures. I’ll go further into detail about this nice new building across the street from the main building when I do my post about the Philadelphia Museum of Art. First check out some of the sculptures you’ll find there. This first one is by one of my favorite sculptors Jacques Lipchitz. I could do a whole post about him.

Well this concludes my second post involving the statues and sculptures around the city of Philadelphia but certainly not the ongoing adventure of taking their pictures. There is too much to include in a single post which is why this is broken down across several articles.

Once again I must encourage you to check out the galleries to the right of your screen to see the others, they’re all worth viewing. Furthermore no matter where you live in the world I highly recommend a visit to the city of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to at least see the Art Museum. Take a tourist trip around the city to see the many landmarks and historical spots around downtown, you can arrange a tourist trip complete with bus rides and guided tours. Or you can do what I do and just walk around, you’re bound to find something.

I’d say you can’t throw a rock without hitting a historical monument, but I wouldn’t recommend throwing rocks at the statues. You might anger William Penn…

Sculpture and Statuary in Philadelphia Part 1

Technorati Tags: sculpture, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, statues, statuary, historical, monuments

This is the first post in a series regarding my photographic efforts to capture all the statues and sculptures throughout the city of Philadelphia, which boasts the largest amount of statues in a single city in the world. The photos in this first expedition were taken in April, 2006 and were part of a collection of 122 shots, all of which are in the gallery named Philadelphia Statues on the sidebar. The next post in the series will center around our outing in the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philly and will include some of its beautiful monuments and statues.

The Museums

My adventure started on a warm and sunny spring morning near the Philadelphia Art Museum. My route was to shoot some of the works around the museum, make my way up Kelly Drive through Fairmount Park and back again, continue past the museum, and proceed up the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

The first in this showing will be the Jacques Lipchitz masterpiece, “Prometheus Strangling the Vulture” which stands in front of the east entrance of the museum on top of the famous Rocky Steps. ( The Rocky Statue is currently [12/07] on view at the foot of the east entrance steps.) Lipchitz exhibited at the Philly Art Museum in 1949 at the 3rd Sculpture International, and his sculptures pepper the city streets. Another prominent example of his artistry is at the Columbia University in Manhattan, “Bellerophon Taming Pegasus.”

Many of Lipchitz’s sculptures revolved around a mythological theme, as do most of the ones around around the Rocky Steps. The next one is a good example.

I’ll have to find out the name of this one and update this, but it is one of my favorites. The following is the huge statue in the small park across the circle from the east entrance generally depicting Native American symbols and a prominent historical figure (perhaps George Washington) atop a stead. It is truly an amazing spectacle.

In one of the subsequent posts I will devote the entire session to the genius Auguste Rodin. He was a nineteenth century French artist whose works, like Lipchitz’s, also focused on some mythology. If you are ever in Philadelphia to see the Art Museum on some Sunday afternoon, don’t skip the Rodin Museum located near the main building on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Housed here is the largest collection of Rodins outside Paris. Its a very decent collection including one of the many versions of “The Burghers of Calais,” and the “Age of Bronze.” In the front of the Museum is the “Gates of Hell” and the famous “The Thinker.”

“The Burghers of Calias”

“The Gates of Hell”

“The Thinker”

Some other decent works under the Museums heading could have come from the recently opened Perelman Building. The Perelman Building is the museums latest gallery and marks the only addition in 80 years. It houses many modern art pieces including sculpture and textiles. Admission is free until 2008.

The Warriors

Too many to display in a single post are the numerous military statues you will find all over the city. They include war heroes, prominent generals, and history makers spanning the centuries. It is interesting to note the symbolism involved with these soldiers. Next time you see a statue of a soldier on horseback notice the feet of the stallion. If both front feet are in the air the subject died in battle, one foot signifies the subject died from wounds received in battle, and both feet mean the rider died of natural causes. The first here is U.S. Grant, the important Civil War general and final commander of the Union Army, whose ride here calmly keeps both front feet firm, as we know he later became President.

The next several here I can’t recall who they are but you and I can both tell if they died in battle, from wounds inflicted in battle, or continued to live after the war.

Each apparently died from wounds received in battle.

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Fairmount and Love Parks

There are some great sculptures all around Fairmount Park up Kelly Drive and along the way to Love Park. The angel here is just one example in Fairmount Park along the Skuykill River. Love Park was created by Philadelphia city planner Edmund Bacon, the father of Kevin Bacon. The Love Statue was created by Robert Indiana.

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Three Generations of Calders

Some of the most influential sculptors of Philadelphia have to be Alexander Calder, his father Alexander Sterling Calder, and his father Alexander Milnes Calder. If you stand in the balcony over the Great Stair Hall you see a huge Alexander Calder mobile over the steps. Turn around and look out the window to observe further down the Parkway the huge fountain about halfway to City Hall, this was the work of ALexander Sterling Calder. Off in the distance you can see atop the City Hall, the statue of William Penn, sculpted by none other than the eldest Alexander Milnes Calder.

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Some Other Great Sculptures

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Sculpture and Statuary in Philadelphia, Part 2

Feast your eyes on the sculptures of Noah and Dan. While we are no Michelangelos (yet), I think they show some imagination and skill. Most were made in the “workshop,” an area in Noah’s attic with decent workspace and tools. You can see more shots of these and others in the Sculpture Gallery.

The image above is the first sculpture I ever made. If there are two words to describe most of my art it would have to be “naked people.” I don’t really know why, probably because they’re easy to paint and even easier to sculpt. Most of the figures tend to be bald for the same reason.

This one was very fun to make and took maybe an hour or so to complete. Its made from Stonex clay, as is most of the models on this post. I’ve used Sculpey in the past but I find for my purposes Stonex to be easier. Its easy to sculpt even with minimal tools and dries on its own with no need for an oven or kiln. One drawback of the Stonex is that it is very brittle and will crack. As you get better you learn some techniques on how to prevent cracks and pieces falling off, such as including a wire armature.

These two are my own personal favorite. They’re both my work and depict a skull (probably my most detailed sculpture) and a squatting girl. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to show much detail with my camera and it is very hard to see the girl very well. I’m proud of the girl because it was executed with only a steak knife, as it was the only instrument available at the time.

This sarcophagus isn’t one of my best but seems to be pretty popular. You can open it up to reveal a compartment, and that’s melted solder metal in the blade.

What makes it interesting is its utility. You can actually use it for a small container if you chose to. You could also sculpt or include a skeleton inside. Overall the sword is the best part. We’ve made many molds and melted metal to make faces and such.

Alright it’s time to add some color. These next images feature some of Noah’s work. He generally likes to paint his models, mostly with enamel paints. His pieces tend to be surreal in nature.

They’re almost morbidly cartoony. Here we have a crazy blue face, a green monster or demon and a skull, Noah’s finest sculpture. The skull is painted in bone white enamel paint.

Up next we have perhaps one of our largest examples, the blue man, and one of my favorites the flesh wound. Both are Noah’s art.

Here are some more of Noah’s examples, note some of the different mediums including molded plastic and metal.

The skull in that last one is mine. I love how the metal molds look. This was accomplished by first making a face or head and then imprinting this into some more Stonex to make a cast. A portable frying pan and a pot were used to melt solder which was then poured quickly into the mold. The clear faces are cast resin.

These next are some more examples of my stuff. A hunched over figure:

>And a figure with a pole, sort of like St. Michael killing the serpent, or some other warrior slaying somebody or something.

I accept the way it came out, but as always the final product looks nothing like the image I had in my mind. The legs contain two paper clips which were then nailed to the board for support. I considered using one of the metal faces as a mask for this one but never got around to it. Perhaps a future version will have such a feature.

These headless figures, resembling a Venus de Milo are Noah’s creation.

Here is Noah’s masterpiece the Ugly Lamp! Believe it or not this is an actual working lamp. Its been described by Noah as Kermit the Frog in a microwave.

And finally, the piece de resistance, the model of the James Ensor painting “Scandalized Masks.” This was a lot of fun but it never got completed. We had a chair and table for the man but they were destroyed, and we never got around to making the hat and hair for the woman. The man had hands and a bottle, both of which are missing. I’ve included a reference photo.

So there you have it, a nice little showcase of our sculpture. There will be much more coming out, the “workshop” is still very much in use.

Future posts about sculpture include a visit to the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia and a photography expedition around the city searching for as much statuary as I can find.

Until then, take it easy!