What is the meaning of statue? Concept and Definition of statue

Definition of statue: Their meanings, concepts and importance

Definition: statue and its importance

The word statue comes from the latin "statŭa", and is used to designate the large sculptures, sometimes equal to or larger than the actual image which mimic, and are artistic creations designed to immortalize characters or transcendent events, capturing figures of gods, mythological creatures, people or animals.
When is a person on horseback (for example it is usual to see which are reminiscent of the libertador San Martin) equestrian statues are called. When the face and part of the body (the top) only are carved they are busts. Although still in use, were particularly used in the peoples of antiquity: Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.
Some statues represent values or ideals Supreme, as it is the case with the statue of liberty, located in the island of freedom in the city of New York, evova 100 years of American independence, being a gift from the French in 1886 State.
The small statues are called statuettes. They can be made in different materials, although the most commonly used are the clay, stone, marble, granite and bronze.
They tend to observe and enjoy the statues in museums and public places such as squares or parks.
The statue made of salt, corresponds to a biblical passage and was divine punishment he received Edith, Lot's wife, to turning itself on the flight from Sodom before its destruction, which was forbidden.
By extension, and comparative mode applies, the qualification of "statues" to people or animals that very little express their feelings or remain very quiet. Example: "the child was cold and paralyzed in terror, as if it were a statue, in the presence of the beast" or "mother hugging your child excited after so long without seeing him, and he remained silent and stiff as a statue."

Concept: statue and what is

We understand by statue to the static representation of a staff, animal or a specific situation, through a sculpture. In general, most frequent statues are human, but they can also represent animals, Angels and other issues such as events or specific, including greater latter times or lesser detail what makes expressions, movements, etc. The statue is characterized by at least having a (full) the same size or greater than what is represented, while other sculptural forms as a bust reproduced only a section of the body.
The statues are perhaps one of the oldest art forms since they are in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Persia, Crete, Mycenae, Greece and Rome, among many others. Traditionally, the statue is a way to represent specific situation so static and motionless, usually in a circular way (which means that it can be observed from any point of the same). The sculptures that can be embedded in a wall and which, therefore, are only observable from certain places, they are not considered statues at all.
Throughout history, man has been able to rely on different types of materials to build their statues. While most primitive statues used to be made in clay, other elements such as stone, marble, gypsum, iron and several other metals were also used to create incredible works of art. There are many different types of statues: at certain times, the equestrian statues (which usually represent political or military leaders) were the most requested. However, also must mention the statues recumbent (those that appear in the tombs and sarcophagi), the orantes (kneeling) and the bidders (making offerings). Own statues are those which are represented standing, even though these are only a few of all the possible categories.
Statues known and most important of the planet include the Egyptian Sphinx, La Venus de Milo, the sculptures of Easter Island, the great Buddha, the David, the Christ Redeemer, the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, Auguste Rodin's the thinker and, of course, the statue of liberty.

Meaning: statue and its uses

1. Sculpture carved in imitation of a natural model: our Mayor has placed a statue of Carlos III in the middle of the Puerta del Sol.

Synonyms
Sculpture, statuary, carving, image, step, figure, portrait, bust, torso, mannequin, naked, monument.

Idioms
Large statue, large bases. Proverbial expression that indicates it has granted to every thing the importance which by its nature is.
One deserve a statue. Expression that are weighted and praise the actions of someone.
Be made a statue. [Figurative usage] Become paralyzed by terror or surprise.

[Art] Sculpture.

Round sculpture, i.e., sculpted in all its parts and that can surround it. Its characteristic is that it is an exempted work which has as predominant values its strength, its physical consistency and material stability.

Although the statues can be different, usually identifies the word "statue" a representation of the human figure in sculpture. This representation can play the human figure isolated and entirely; a part of the body, the more expressive, IE a bust; a group of figures, i.e., a scene, a joint action (this set is called sculpture group). Equally, the statue may conform to what is called a Memorial involving in cultures with historical sense, the idea of perpetuating the memory of what represents.

The functions developed by the statue in the history of art, equally, are diverse. From classical antiquity is believed that statues, that is the representation of the human figure, was the type more noble sculpture so that, in addition to the General properties of the cosmetic work, considered that it was characterized by rest, typical and individual expression, and the proportion of organic. These considerations have determined that the statues have been used for images with a strong religious or political representation, images which is endowed of values and ideals meanings.

According to all these features the statues can be: equestrian, when representing a person on horseback; Orantes, when representing a person kneeling and in attitude of prayer; seated, when representing a seated person; and confining, when representing a dead person. There are also providers statues, etc.

Equestrian statues

Equestrian statues were a creation of the Roman period, exactly emerged in the reign of Hadrian (178-138 BC), when the sculptural technique was perfected through the use of such a trephine it allowed to create areas with shades of great realism, with the consequent development of the portrait, while the classic, full forms of sentimentality and idealization intensified. Within the portrait was developed the equestrian representation, i.e. the representation of the portrayed on a horse; all the Roman equestrian works include the statue of Marcus Aurelius, work in bronze made to 173 A.d., which represents the Emperor on a horse who had his feet to a defeated barbarian (today does not exist). This equestrian sculpture, located in the Centre of the Roman Capitol Square, from the year 1538 had a great influence on the sculpture of the Quattrocento Florence.

After the fall of the Empire the major part of his legacy was lost, that throughout the long medieval period will not be no equestrian statue, although it is possible that there was a statue Equestrian of Theodoric, Ravenna, from the Carolingian cycle, in the famous Palatine Chapel, in the atrium of access, to signify the relationship with the emperor.

It was in the 15th century, with the recovery of classical culture, when West returned to make equestrian statues. The Condottiero Gattamelata, made by Donatello in 1453 by Erasmo of Narni, called Gattamelata, custom is the first large equestrian statue from Marco Aurelio in Rome. The influence of this work was decisive. Considers that Donatello played and surpassed in classical antiquity; from it, all equestrian statuary was inspired by the Gattamelata. Leonardo was an equestrian monument to Gian Giacomo Trivulzio project, as well as various projects for the French Governor Charles D'amboise, a great admirer of the artist.

Representation of equestrian statues had a very important influence in the preceding centuries; It became a representation of essential dignity to capture the image of Kings and Princes. In the important urban developments of the 17TH and 18th century equestrian statues of Kings were essential elements for the embellishment of squares and gardens of the city.

Since the sculptural representation the equestrian portrait became the pictorial representation, which had its first record in the Renaissance era, although it was not fully developed until the Baroque period.

Orantes statues

Orantes statues are typical of Christian art and, therefore, did not have any endorsement in classical antiquity, though Yes you can speak of representations suppliers statues of primitive peoples that often have the same provision that orantes statues.

The first orantes representations found in painting, and this art later became the sculpture. Orantes figures are already in the early Christian art of the catacombs, which arise from the pagan repertoire and which make reference to the soul. However, it was not until the 14th and 15th centuries when these figures were common through the introduction of the figure of the donor in the works of art. The donor is represented kneeling and praying near the scene of the painted picture. From these representations developed the praying statue which, over the centuries, to a lesser extent in the 14th and 15th, and above all in the 16th, were statues that accompanied to the graves. This trend reached its maximum expression in the work of Pompeo Leoni, who performed two sculptural complexes of orantes figures on both sides of the Church of the monastery of El Escorial; a group he represents Carlos V by Empress Elisabeth, accompanied by sisters and sons of the Emperor, and on the opposite side, the King Felipe II with Isabel de Valois, Maria of Portugal and Prince Charles. With them it was for a celebration of the Royal House of Austria. The treatment of Leoni had a great influence in all Spanish sculpture.

Seated statues

Seated sculptural representation, i.e. of a seated person, is usual from the ancient world, since it is the image par excellence of the representation of the King, the ruler who distributes justice. So, are common the seated statues in Mesopotamian art; the extraordinary sculpted representations of Patesi Gudea of Lagash on hard and black stone (soapstone, diorite) they correspond to the neo-sumerio period, notable in the Louvre Museum, seated in the Sumerian robe that leaves exposed his right shoulder, hands intertwined on the chest, turban covering head and mantle on the legs with prints of city maps.

Also common were seated statues of Egyptian pharaohs, where it was intended to show the dignity of the ruler next to the divinity; famous are the seated statues of Ramsés II in the facade of the Temple of Abu Simbel, or the so-called colossi of Memnon depicting Pharaoh Amenhotep III seated.

Other peoples of antiquity used profusely seated images as images of Majesty; Thus, examples are in Iberian Art, primarily in the so-called Dama de Baza, magnificent round sculpture depicting a female divinity beautifully painted, adorned with jewels and beading, with a bird on his hands; Likewise, presumably the famous Lady of Elche was a seated statue that is missing a part of the body since ancient times.

The Greek art became classic seated representations; Thus, one of the sculptures of the most characteristic of this art, the seated statue of Zeus by Fidias, today disappeared, presided over the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.

The Romans, masters of the portrait, representing their emperors, family members and large patricians in multiple portraits that could be full-length or only of the bust, seated or standing, dressed in toga Patrick or breastplate and attributes military, with symbols of pontifex maximus, or deified (naked, crowned with laurel).

Equally, the seated image of the Buddha, sitting on a throne of Lotus, symbolic image of Majesty is common in oriental art.

After the fall of the Empire the symbolism of the seated image was not lost, but that, on the contrary, is boosted by the many representations of Christ or the Virgin enthroned, is seated on the throne; These representations were both pictorial and sculptural, and had its maximum expression in the Romanesque Christ Pantocrator.

Throughout the Renaissance and Baroque seated images were quite common both in the profane sacred art; However, the seated sculptures were most common in sacred art, where a representation which had a great success and a tremendous development was enshrined: the Virgin enthroned with the child on her knees. In terms of the representation of Kings, was dominant the seated image in painting; in sculpture are preferred triumphal images representing the Kings on horseback, full-length or bust.

In the neoclassical seated sculpture was again very used; the taste by the monument and the use of sculpture as a form of remembrance and exaltation of the great men found the use of a new meaning for the seated statue, which was used, not as a symbol of the deified or Royal Majesty, but as an image of the intelligent man, admired for his intellect, of the so-called big man. Hence, the seated statue went on to represent many intellectuals, artists, writers and politicians; one of the best examples of the new symbolism of the seated statue is the figure of Abraham Lincoln.

Recumbent statues

The recumbent statues had a discontinuous development and manifested primarily as representations of the coffin and burial sites. Thus, they were common among the Etruscans, where the main characteristic of the sarcophagus is a representation of the deceased lying on the cover of the sarcophagus, represented as if reclining on a kline, as if part of the funeral banquet. This type of representations had an extraordinary influence for the development of the Roman portraiture, although the Romans rarely represented in their sarcophagi a reclining image.

This type of representation is returned to in medieval times; used from the Romanesque period, the reclining image had a great development primarily by the importance that acquired the graves in the Gothic era, where the representation of the buried in reclining position became usual.

In the Renaissance the seated statue was adapted to a new representation, the image of Christ; one of the most famous is the image of Christ made by Miguel Ángel in piety, where is represents a naked cadaver of Christ lying in the lap of the mother. This iconography was a huge success and became one of the most popular representations of the Baroque.

Also, image of Christ lying in the grave became one of the most common images of the Baroque Catholic (this representation is one of the most popular of the Holy week in Spain).