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Monday 20 November 2017

Sculptor

The original creator of The Colossus of Rhodes, master sculptor Chares of Lindos, erected it in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name in 280 BC.

Donatello, the greatest of the early Tuscan sculptors, was born in Florence, Italy in c1386. He may be regarded as the founder of modern sculpture, as the first producer since classical times of statues complete and independent in themselves, and not mere adjuncts of their architectural surroundings. Among his works are the marble statues of saints Mark and George for the exterior of Or San Michele; and the tomb of Pope John XXIII in the Baptistery. He died on December 13, 1466.

Donatello By I, Sailko,

When the young Michelangelo announced he was going to be a painter he was beaten by his father. When he later announced his wish to become a sculptor his family were even more outraged as it was generally thought that the heavy manual labor involved rendered sculpture inferior to painting.

When Michelangelo was commissioned by the Pope to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he was unenthusiastic about the project as he thought of himself as a sculptor rather than a painter.

Born in 1541 on the isle of Crete as Domenikos Theotokopoulos, the Italians and Spanish thought it simpler to call the painter and sculptor 'El Greco' (the Greek).

El Greco once made an offer to the Pope to paint over Michelangelo's Last Judgment on the Sistene Chapel ceiling because he was so dismissive of his work.

Portrait of a Man (presumed self-portrait of El Greco), c. 1595–1600

Anne Seymour Damer became Britain’s first professional female sculptor in 1776, after her husband committed suicide leaving considerable debts. She sculpted Lord Nelson among others and was satirized for her male clothing and close relationships with women, including an author called Mary Berry. She died, aged 79, on May 28, 1828 at her London house and was buried in the church at Sundridge, Kent, along with her sculptor's tools and apron and the ashes of her favorite dog.

Self-portrait bust in the Uffizi gallery of Anne Seymour Damer. By Michalis Famelis

At the age of 18, Vinnie Ream was appointed the U.S. government's first and youngest commissioned female sculptor on July 28, 1866. She received a commission from the United States government for a statue of Abraham Lincoln.

The French sculptor Auguste Rodin  (November 12, 1840 – November  17, 1917) is best known for creating one of the most recognized of all sculptures The Thinker in 1889. The most renowned European sculptor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he remains one of the few sculptors widely known outside the visual arts community. Rodin is often considered a sculptural Impressionist, attempting to model a fleeting moment of ordinary life. He married his lifetime companion, seamstress, Rose Beuret, at the age of 76, and both died within the year.

Rodin in his studio.

Danish-American sculptor Gutzon Borglum who designed the Mount Rushmore presidential sculptures and oversaw the project's execution, studied art in Paris when a youth with Auguste Rodin

The wife of Antarctica explorer Robert Falcon Scott, Kathleen Bruce, was a noted sculptor and a pupil of Rodin.

The face of the Statue of Liberty is based on the mother of its sculptor, Frederic Bartholdi.

Unpacking of the face of the Statue of Liberty,

In the early days of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso revolutionized the art of sculpture when he began creating his constructions fashioned by combining disparate objects and materials into one constructed piece of sculpture. One of  Picasso's most famous sculptures included bicycle parts.

Marcel Duchamp originated the use of the "found object" or readymade with pieces such as Fountain (1917).

Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976) was an American sculptor who invented the mobile, in which the suspended components move spontaneously in response to touch or air currents.

The Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) designed the Nobel Peace Prize medal and the Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, which contains ‘the weirdest statues in the world’ — including one of a naked man throwing and kicking babies.

The English sculptor Henry Moore (July 30, 1898 – August 31, 1986) was known for producing semiabstract bronze sculptures as public art, which can be found as far afield as London, Jerusalem and Hong Kong. After his death, Moore's total art output was valued at £130 million.

Henry Moore, standing next to his Working Model for Oval with Points. By Allan Warren

German sculptor Walter Lemcke designed the first Olympic torch for the 1936 Berlin games. It began the tradition of taking the Olympic Flame to the host city.

The Wakefield, England-born sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) was described as "probably the most significant woman artist in the history of art to this day." In 1933, Hepworth co-founded the Unit One art movement, which sought to unite Surrealism and abstraction in British art. Her oldest son was killed in an air crash and she cut her second son, one of triplets, out of her will after he sold a sculpture she’d given him.

Thought of as Britain’s first teen idol, rock 'n' roll singer Tommy Steele is also a sculptor and made the Eleanor Rigby statue in Liverpool for a fee of 3d (or half a sixpence, the name of the hit musical he was starring in at the time).

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