Sculpture is defined as “a three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard, plastic material, wire, sound, text, light, commonly stone (either rock or marble), metal, glass, or wood” (Wikipedia).  You can forge a lion from a block of ice, or you can whittle a shape from word, but you must create something that is three dimensional.

It was the arrival of the Homo sapiens that heralded the arrival of sculpture.  The Ice Age Hunters were keen to record images of reindeer and the female form.  They scraped away with their flints to create extraordinary artefacts that they sometimes stored in small parts of their dwellings as offerings to their Gods.

In the 3^rd century BC, Indian sculptors carved scenes and characters from the three religions of the time – Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.  Buddhist sculptures in particular seemed to develop a character all their own.

Fast forward to the Greek and Romans of the 4^th and 5^th centuries BC, and the “Classical period” revealed pieces of such scale and ambition as the “Charioteer of Delphi”.  This was a life-size bronze figure which had been part of a group containing a chariot, horses, a royal passenger, slave boy and charioteer.  Another extraordinary work is the “Discus Thrower” by Myron.  At this time too, busts and portraits became common works of fine art.

After the year 1000, especially in Europe Romanesque art developed and sculptures over church doors or at important French, Spanish or Italian centres were commonplace.  We have works from Toulouse, Vezelay and Cluny and cities such as Pisa and Santiago de Compostela boasted extraordinary sculptures.

In the Americas, totems, totem poles, masks, and boats became notable sculptures.  Some of the sculptures may have been smaller, but often revealed extraordinary skills.  In and around 1400, the sculpture and fine art of Florence in Italy excelled.  Donatello was followed in 1500’s and 1600’s by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. The latter, who had just turned 24, was commissioned to sculpt a marble statue of “David” in his home city of Florence.  By this time the Renaissance was well underway and Da Vinci and Michelangelo became known as “Renaissance Men”.

More recently of course there was the intriguing Pablo Picasso from Spain who died back in 1973.  A short while back, a sculpture of his sold for a record price of six point seven million American Dollars in New York.  That’s four point two million pounds.

A mention too for the more recent sculptures of Henry Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986).  His fondness for the “undulating” figure was manifested in unusual abstractions of the human body.  He often sculpted mother and child or reclining figures.

The Art Gallery of Ontario’s Henry Moore collection is the largest public collection of his works in the world.