Madeline Leyba, age 9, of Gallup, N.M. for her question:
WHEN WAS SCULPTURE FIRST MADE?
In ancient times in the Middle East and India, almost all sculpture was a basic part of a building. Monumental sculpture was actually planned and created in association with architecuture. This theme continued with Greek and Roman sculpture: Most statues were carved for a certain position on or in a temple, a forum, palace or tomb. Prehistoric man's first attempt at sculpture was most likely embellishing an already existing object. Bones, rocks or animal horns that looked like men or animals were given eyes or arms.
A limestone figurine a bit under five inches was carved by a prehistoric man about 30,000 B.C. Called the Venus of Willendorf, the sculpture was found in Austria and is now in a Vienna museum. A carving of a bison licking himself was found in France. The four inch figure was created about 9000 B.C.
Many fine sculptures came from Egypt, Asia Minor, the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia before 3000 B.C.
The influence of the Buddhist religion was reflected in the sculpture that came out of the first thousand years of Indian culture from 500 B.C. to 500 A.D.
Early Chinese sculpture came from the period of 1500 B.C. to about 1027 B.C. The ancient artists faced the mysteries of the universe by making offerings to unknown spirits. The carved figures were of exquisite workmanship and were placed in tombs.
Prehistoric artists of Japan made clay figures intended as funeral sculptures. The figures were similar to the works of other Oriental civilizations. During the medieval period beginning about 600 A.D., beautiful wood carvings with gold coloring came from the East's artists.
The Greeks were the first sculptors to come up with realistic figures. Faces reflected emotions. The style was copied by Roman sculptors and later relearned by Renaissance artists. Greek art went through three periods in development: the Archaic period, from about 630 to 480 B.C.; the Classical period, which lasted until about 323 B.C., and the Hellenistic period, which ended about 146 B.C.
When the Romans conquered Greece and the Hellenistic kingdoms in the 100s B.C., they brought many Greek statues to Italy. Greek artists also went to Italy where they produced many works in the Greek style which at the same time expressed Roman ideas.
The Romans were deeply religious, and many of the carvings told symbolic stories. Historical events were also depicted on early reliefs carved into arches and columns.