The use of clay in sculptures throughout history
The words ‘sculpture’ and ‘sculptor’ both came into English from a Latin word meaning ‘to carve’. A sculptor is therefore first of all a ‘carver’, an artist who carves figures and objects out of solid substances such as wood or stone. However there is also another kind of sculpture, which is called ‘modelling’. Instead of cutting the material the modeller shapes it with his hands using something quite soft like clay, which he later bakes hard or copies in a metal like bronze.
Sculptures always have depth and should be looked at from different positions, from the sides as well as the front and sometimes from all round. They are also quite often nice to touch with your hands.
The kind of sculpture an artist makes depends on the material he chooses to use. Clay is soft and pliable, so the sculptor can use his hands to shape it and therefore clay can be moulded more delicately than for instance stone, which has to be cut with a chisel.
Clay is very fine particles of dirt, which float in a stream or river and then sink to the bottom where they press on each other and stick together. You usually find clay along the banks of a river or stream where the river is pulling dirt down off the mountains or hills and dropping it in a quiet part of the river lower down. So people who live in river valleys like the Harappans or Egyptians generally find a lot of clay.
Clay therefore is easy and cheap to get, it’s squishy when wet and can be moulded into any shape you like. It quickly dries in the sun as the water evaporates. The clay pots or sculptures are then put in a fire or oven called a kiln and baked at a high temperature to make it even harder. This is called ‘firing’.
The prehistoric people of Japan made clay figures intended as funeral sculptures. The figures derived their power from early peoples love of monumentality.
Above: Venus Of Willendorf
In Ancient times, the earliest clay figure ‘Venus of Willendorf’ dates back to about 24000 to 22000 B.C. and is a female figure approximately eleven centimetres high. The ‘Woman with Raised Arms’ from the 7th century shows a typical funerary offering.
Above: Woman With Raised Arms
People first started to fire clay about 6000 B.C. when early nomadic cultures began to establish the first civilisations. The ancient civilisation of Egypt and Mesopotamia, which began about 5000 years ago, produced great builders and sculptors. Small sculptured forms of servants and animals used to be placed in Egyptian tombs so that the dead person should not go alone and unattended into the next world. Sculpture was also used to decorate the walls of the tombs.
The Greeks created the noblest and most beautiful sculptures of the ancient world. They were aimed at copying the life and movement of the human body.
The potter’s wheel was first used in the Bronze Age around 3000 B.C. and then a newer, faster version appeared in Asia and Europe in 2000 B.C.
The different civilisations began to develop their own distinctive style and patterns of clay sculptures, depicting deities and forms found in nature. Clay was also used for cooking pots and drinking vessels.
The Chinese are also famous for their clay sculptures, which include realistic and lively figures of horses, camels, men and strange beasts.
Above: Chinese Terracotta Soldiers and Horses
In India most of the sculpture was done as part of buildings, particularly of temples. Carvings of animals and birds, gods and men, dancing figures, monsters and demons covered the walls.
The races of ancient Mexico produced more clay sculptures than any other people. The custom was that all clay figures and pottery had to be destroyed every fifty-two years to mark the end of a cycle or period, and so each time artist and potters started all over again to replace them.
Clay sculptures from Southern Africa can be traced as far back as 600 A.D. These figures have both human and animal characteristics.
In 1499 Da Vinci used his knowledge of animal anatomy to design and produce a very large clay model of a planned bronze sculpture.
Sculptors of the eighteen hundreds like the Renaissance sculptors worked in large workshops with student assistants, and during this period the industrially developed technique of sand-mould casting was used to mass produce bronzes.
Sculptors today use very different methods and materials from those used in the past. Most sculptors these days work alone and are trained in schools not in workshops as apprentices. Sculptors show collections of their work at art galleries and very few carve using wood or stone.
Modellers using clay use their hands and trimming and shaping tools. As soft clay cannot support its own weight when drawn into thin shapes, modellers overcome this by building a framework called an ‘armature’ to support the figure. An armature consists of wire for small figures and metal tubing for larger ones. To give the sculpture permanence, a casting must be made. This is a highly specialised and expensive process that few sculptors can do themselves. Most of them make a model and take it to a foundry where an enlarged copy is cast.
Today potters and sculptors use different glazing techniques, or no glaze at all before firing their creations in kilns. Artists use wood-burning oil and gas kilns to fire their clay sculptures, which make them incredibly hard and impervious to water.
