europe

Slavic Statues - we can find remarkable works of art in these territories dating all the way back to the Stone Age, for let us not forget the famous Willendorf Venus figurine or the statue of a bull from the Bull Rock Cave. The Celts, too, gifted the people of this land with their deft craftsmanship, as did the Slavs and other nations that passed through. We may assume that here, as in the lands of the Vikings, wood was the primary material used for sculptural work such as statues of the gods or mundane objects, but unfortunately, due to the nature of this material there are few works left for archaeologists to find. Bohemian and Moravian craftspeople honed their skills even during the Middle Ages, and we can enjoy their legacy of magnificent statues, bust portraits, decorative relief tiles and other luxurious goods.

Replicas of Sculptures (Greece, Ancient Rome). In the Classical Period in Greece we meet with beautifully depicted Gods and Goddesses, boys (often nude) and girls. Man as such was idealized and the Greeks tried to depict him as beautifully as possible. In the later Hellenistic period we see a wider array of motifs, which included childhood, old age, death, people engaged in ordinary professions, and there is an attempt to capture movement and states of mind. Statues were painted or gilded and had stones in their eye sockets. They were often draped with fabrics or covered with bronze or gold sheets. Dozens of them would be installed in temples or other holy places. Generally, their facial features had little individuality, and the period’s erotic statues (such as statues of Aphrodite) were no exception. Smaller clay statues served as votive gifts to the gods as well as decorations.
 
The Romans were influenced by Etruscan art (especially tombs and sarcophagi: stone cases for coffins), but usually they reproduced Greek artwork. Some of the Greek originals were lost to the ages, and have only been preserved for us only in the Roman copies. However, while the Greeks often used bronze in their works, the Romans preferred marble. Like the Greeks, they also preferred their statues to be colourful, but there were other differences: they were partial to realistic likenesses of politicians and emperors, sometimes rendered as equestrian statues, and had a fondness for portraits of children as well. Some other important works are reliefs carved into triumphal arches and victory columns - such as Trajan’s Column in Rome - that commemorate historic events. One more category is of small, luxurious items: these include statues decorated with precious materials, or carvings and intaglios carved into gemstone cameos and signet rings or into shells or glass.

Replicas of sculptures from the Viking Age to the High Middle Ages. The Vikings (8th – 11th centuries) had unusually skilful artisans who worked with rich, flowing, ever-changing geometrical, animal (including mythological animals) and floral forms. One of their hallmarks were their rune letters, which were usually carved into stone, but all kinds of texts have been found on metal, bone and wooden objects. Wood was abundant and easy to work with and the art of wood carving was highly developed, but we can also find magnificent artworks made from other materials, such as engraved drinking horns or blowing horns. On the European continent, particularly in the Western part, only reliefs - and not freestanding statues - were carved. Or at least there remains no record of such statues, especially not any wooden ones, which may have deteriorated.

The expansion of Christianity had a profound effect on European artwork, though chthonic beings and other spiritual motifs and ornamental styles from the period of the pagan Migration Period persisted in the peripheries. The era of Charlemagne (Carolingian Period, approximately 9th - 10th centuries) is associated not only with the further development of Christian plastic arts and painting, but also with the return of sculptural renderings of common people and their lords carved into common materials - or even uncommon ones, such as ivory embellished with gold. Medieval artists drew inspiration not only from antiquity but also from the Byzantine Empire.

The Romanesque style that emerged around the year 1000 along with the increasing wealth and development of trade utilized sculptures and reliefs mainly only as complementary decorations for architecture. The Gothic period added statues of madonnas and pietàs that attempted to capture unsettled mental states. Stone carving remained an accessory to architecture, and most free standing sculptures were made from wood. The exceptions to this rule were stone or alabaster statues on the graves of wealthy people. The Renaissance and Baroque eras then witnessed the further development of (mainly) Christian motifs and ever more masterful working of materials. Notably, Italian sculpture began to be generously supported by the state, and the public could gaze at both public art and works exhibited by private patrons. In the Renaissance glyptics (the art of engraving not only gemstones, but also shells, mother of pearl and glass) was revived and cameo carvings once again adorned various types of jewellery and brooches or fibulae. Previously, when most of the cameos found in Europe had been imported from Byzantium, they usually served as decorations for book bindings, reliquaries and other objects.