Editing Sculpture (section)

==Purposes and subjects==
[[File:Moáis.jpg|thumb|''[[Moai]]'' from [[Easter Island]], where the concentration of resources on large sculpture may have had serious political effects]]
[[File:Pisanello, medaglia di giovanni paleologo, I esemplare del bargello.JPG|thumb|[[Medal of John VIII Palaeologus]], {{Circa|1435}}, by [[Pisanello]], the first portrait medal, a medium essentially made for collecting]]
One of the most common purposes of sculpture is in some form of association with religion. [[Cult image]]s are common in many cultures, though they are often not the colossal statues of deities which characterized [[ancient Greek art]], like the [[Statue of Zeus at Olympia]]. The actual cult images in the innermost sanctuaries of [[Egyptian temple]]s, of which none have survived, were evidently rather small, even in the largest temples. The same is often true in [[Hinduism]], where the very simple and ancient form of the [[lingam]] is the most common. [[Buddhism]] brought the sculpture of religious figures to [[East Asia]], where there seems to have been no earlier equivalent tradition, though again simple shapes like the ''[[bi (jade)|bi]]'' and ''[[cong (jade)|cong]]'' probably had religious significance.

Small sculptures as personal possessions go back to the earliest prehistoric art, and the use of very large sculpture as [[public art]], especially to impress the viewer with the power of a ruler, goes back at least to the [[Great Sphinx]] of some 4,500 years ago. In [[archaeology]] and art history the appearance, and sometimes disappearance, of large or monumental sculpture in a culture is regarded as of great significance, though tracing the emergence is often complicated by the presumed existence of sculpture in wood and other perishable materials of which no record remains;<ref name="Google books">See for example Martin Robertson, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=BoUsvD1_VNQC&pg=PA9 A shorter history of Greek art] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221204112630/https://books.google.com/books?id=BoUsvD1_VNQC&pg=PA9 |date=2022-12-04 }}'', p. 9, Cambridge University Press, 1981, {{ISBN|978-0-521-28084-6}}</ref>

The [[totem pole]] is an example of a tradition of monumental sculpture in wood that would leave no traces for archaeology. The ability to summon the resources to create monumental sculpture, by transporting usually very heavy materials and arranging for the payment of what are usually regarded as full-time sculptors, is considered a mark of a relatively advanced culture in terms of social organization. Recent unexpected discoveries of ancient Chinese [[Bronze Age]] figures at [[Sanxingdui]], some more than twice human size, have disturbed many ideas held about early Chinese civilization, since only much smaller bronzes were previously known.<ref>[http://www.nga.gov/education/chinatp_san.shtm NGA, Washington] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130215195511/http://www.nga.gov/education/chinatp_san.shtm |date=2013-02-15 }} feature on exhibition.</ref>

Some undoubtedly advanced cultures, such as the [[Indus Valley civilization]], appear to have had no monumental sculpture at all, though producing very sophisticated figurines and seals. The [[Mississippian culture]] seems to have been progressing towards its use, with small stone figures, when it collapsed. Other cultures, such as ancient Egypt and the [[History of Easter Island|Easter Island culture]], seem to have devoted enormous resources to very large-scale monumental sculpture from a very early stage.

The collecting of sculpture, including that of earlier periods, goes back some 2,000 years in Greece, China and Mesoamerica, and many collections were available on semi-public display long before the modern [[museum]] was invented. From the 20th century the relatively restricted range of subjects found in large sculpture expanded greatly, with abstract subjects and the use or representation of any type of subject now common. Today much sculpture is made for intermittent display in galleries and museums, and the ability to transport and store the increasingly large works is a factor in their construction.

Small decorative [[figurine]]s, most often in ceramics, are as popular today (though strangely neglected by [[Modern art|modern]] and [[Contemporary art]]) as they were in the [[Rococo]], or in ancient Greece when [[Tanagra figurines]] were a major industry, or in East Asian and [[Pre-Columbian art]]. Small sculpted fittings for furniture and other objects go well back into antiquity, as in the [[Nimrud ivories]], [[Begram ivories]] and finds from the tomb of [[Tutankhamun]].

Portrait sculpture began in [[Egypt]], where the [[Narmer Palette]] shows a ruler of the 32nd century BCE, and [[Mesopotamia]], where we have 27 surviving [[statues of Gudea]], who ruled [[Lagash]] c. 2144–2124 BCE. In ancient Greece and Rome, the erection of a portrait statue in a public place was almost the highest mark of honour, and the ambition of the elite, who might also be depicted on a coin.<ref>The [[Ptolemies]] began the Hellenistic tradition of ruler-portraits on coins, and the Romans began to show dead politicians in the 1st century BCE, with [[Julius Caesar]] the first living figure to be portrayed; under the emperors portraits of the Imperial family became standard. See Burnett, 34–35; Howgego, 63–70.</ref>

In other cultures such as Egypt and the Near East public statues were almost exclusively the preserve of the ruler, with other wealthy people only being portrayed in their tombs. Rulers are typically the only people given portraits in Pre-Columbian cultures, beginning with the [[Olmec colossal heads]] of about 3,000 years ago. East Asian portrait sculpture was entirely religious, with leading clergy being commemorated with statues, especially the founders of monasteries, but not rulers, or ancestors. The Mediterranean tradition revived, initially only for tomb effigies and coins, in the Middle Ages, but expanded greatly in the Renaissance, which invented new forms such as the personal portrait [[medal]].

Animals are, with the human figure, the earliest subject for sculpture, and have always been popular, sometimes realistic, but often imaginary monsters; in China animals and monsters are almost the only traditional subjects for stone sculpture outside tombs and temples. The kingdom of plants is important only in jewellery and decorative reliefs, but these form almost all the large sculpture of [[Byzantine art]] and [[Islamic art]], and are very important in most Eurasian traditions, where motifs such as the [[palmette]] and vine scroll have passed east and west for over two millennia.

One form of sculpture found in many prehistoric cultures around the world is specially enlarged versions of ordinary tools, weapons or vessels created in impractical precious materials, for either some form of ceremonial use or display or as offerings. [[Jade]] or other types of [[greenstone (archaeology)|greenstone]] were used in China, [[Olmec]] Mexico, and [[Neolithic Europe]], and in early Mesopotamia large pottery shapes were produced in stone. Bronze was used in Europe and China for large axes and blades, like the [[Oxborough Dirk]].