Classical Sculpture Techniques and Their Surprising Influence on Modernism

The thread between ancient and modern art was entwined. Artists of the modern art period employed classical sculpting techniques, materials, and sometimes themes in the creation of their own works of art. The methods and styles used before the first millennium were never fully abandoned but were regularly recycled, thus continuing the life cycle of classical sculpture techniques. These techniques included sculpting in marble or stone and working with bronze or other metals using lost-wax methods.

The Classical period refers mainly to the time and area of the central Mediterranean, near the Aegean Sea, during Ancient Greece followed by the Roman era. This time period is considered to have begun with the rise of Greek city states, or polis, around 800 BC, followed by the Romans who conquered the polis around 146 BC, ending with the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD. During the Classical period, one art form used throughout the Mediterranean was that of marble or stone sculpture. However, it was not a technique unique to Greece until around the 7th century BC (700-601 BC).

This is because at this time Greece and Egypt became entwined, once again (Ancient Egypt and the Mycenaeans were connected during the Late Bronze Age, roughly 1600-1200 BC), when Greece was becoming increasingly politically and economically powerful at the same time Egypt became reunited in the 26th Dynasty, causing trade relationships and interactions to blossom between the two. It was in the foreground of this relationship between the Greeks and Egyptians that the Greeks were introduced to the technique of marble and stone sculpting.

Ancient Egyptians would draw the shape of the sculpture onto all four sides of a stone block and then, using abrasive tools, chisel into the block from all sides. This method was also used by the Greeks until the Hellenistic period, when sculptures would be worked from front to back. In Ancient Greece, the idea of the sculpture and its size usually came before marble would be removed from the quarries (which were commonly in the Cyclades archipelago, or group of small islands, or the southwestern Turkish city of Aphrodisias), so marble would be selected according to the intended size and shape of the sculpture desired by the person who commissioned it.

Ancient Greeks would also often work with marble or limestone. The marble would then be taken to a sculpture workshop where, depending on its sides, it would be worked on by multiple people or a single sculptor. In Ancient Greece, as compared to Egypt, due to the philosophy surrounding the praise for the individual, individual artists were sometimes recognized, including the creators of sculptures themselves. Further, in Ancient Greece, especially during the Classical (ca. 500-323 BC) and Hellenistic periods (ca. 323-30 BC), sculptures were created with the philosophy of poikilia or varietas in mind. This meant that sculptures were specifically carved using light sources to create dark and light contrasts, and were painted with multiple colors, or were polychromatic, to create a sense of multiplicity or dimensionality.

As Ancient Greek society progressed, so did their marble sculptures. The stoicism that characterized the Archaic period transitioned into more free-form sculptures, which leaned into the wet drapery technique. This technique revealed parts of the human form beneath clothing as if it were soaking wet. This has become one of the most recognizable and replicated styles from the Classical period. Following the Greeks, Romans would make their own marble statues, or copy Greek marble or bronze originals. However, an art form that was unique to the Romans was that of marble busts, or portraits from the shoulders up. These busts could represent a family’s lineage or ancestry, or individuals of high social ranking, whether that be in politics or the military.

Another technique of the Classical period was that of bronze or other metal sculptures (and objects) that would be created using the lost wax method. The Ancient Greeks had two different methods, one is referred to as the direct method, in which the sculptor would produce a wax model of the sculpture first, then cover it entirely in plaster, which would harden into a cast. Then hot metal, which was usually composed of a mixture of zinc, copper, silver, bronze, and lead (even sculptures labeled as ‘bronze’ are typically a mix of bronze with other metals), would be poured into the plaster as it was flipped upside down.

When the plaster cast would be made, a hole would be left in the bottom, or sometimes a series of holes along the sides, which would serve as a funnel for the wax to pour out from. As the wax gets ‘lost’ in this process, it is replaced with the hot metal which conforms to the shape of the plaster cast. The types of sculptures made through this method would usually be smaller-scale statues and objects, due to the heavy weight and cost of bronze. An example would be fibulae, or small grave offerings that were used throughout the Aegean during the 8th and 7th centuries.

The other method of the lost wax process would be the indirect method of casting. Compared to the direct method, which would create an inner sculpture entirely of wax, the indirect method would begin with a base of plaster or another heat-resistant material as the sculpture core, which would be covered in a layer of wax, followed by plaster. Notably, parts of the sculpture, for example body parts, could be cast separately, and then assembled together once all pieces were created. The melting process would be carried out in the same fashion as the direct method, with hot metal being poured into the plaster that would push the wax out from the holes left. The metal sculpture was made indirectly because it is left hollow due to being poured over an interior core piece.

What was unique about this method was that the interior core could be reused, allowing for multiple copies to be created of a single sculpture, or object, as compared to the direct method where the wax core would be completely ‘lost’ in the process of metal pouring. Sometimes these interior cores would be reworked with new details, thus re-using old materials while creating something somewhat unique. The indirect method was reserved for human-size or larger scale ‘bronze’ sculptures because, as previously mentioned, they were less heavy and also more cost-effective.

Modern art is typically associated with the time frame of the mid-to-late 19th century through 1945. During the modern period, artists such as Barbara Hepworth recalled the sculptures of the Classical world by choosing, and urging others, to work directly with their sculptures. Prior to modern art, art academies set the standards of what themes and production methods were deemed acceptable. Within the academic environment of sculpture, it was typical for artists to create their sculptures in wax or another mold and send it to a stone workshop for someone else, typically a specialist, to replicate their figure in stone or marble.

Barbara Hepworth on the other hand would select the marble herself, preferring white marble from Tuscany. With white marble as one of her mediums, she would chisel away at quarried blocks in the same fashion that artisans would in Classical Antiquity. Another way she perhaps unintentionally recalled Classical marble sculpting was the way in which she focused on the interplay between light and shadow in her sculptures. This recalls the way Ancient Greeks created sculptures with the philosophy of poikili, the end result being textured, dimensional works of art.

Another modern artist who was influenced by the sculptures of the Classical world was Amedeo Modigliani. Although mostly known for his stylistic paintings of people, mostly women, he considered himself a sculptor, and created a number of limestone women’s heads throughout his short career that were intended to serve as columns for a never realized “temple of beauty.” In addition to being carved from limestone (scavenged from construction sites throughout Paris, including the subway) which, as previously mentioned, was used as a sculpture medium in the Classical world, he was stylistically influenced by the human forms of the Classical world, especially the simplified expressionless faces of Cycladic figurines.

The sculpture Death of Cleopatra by Edmonia Lewis references Classical sculpture through its techniques and medium. This three-ton sculpture depicts the moments just after Cleopatra’s presumed suicide by a venomous snake, which ran in contrast to contemporary, perhaps more modest depictions of Cleopatra at the time of the late 19th century.

The choice of depicting the moment seconds after Cleopatra’s death also recalls the realism and drama that was performed through sculptures from the Classic and Hellenistic period in Ancient Greece, which would be adopted by the Romans. Further, Lewis employs the ‘wet drapery’ technique that was characteristic of the Classical period, evident in the way her knees are visible beneath the folds of her clothing. Lewis was a contemporary of Neoclassicism, however, this art period attributed much of its inspiration from the classical world.

Auguste Rodin continued the legacy of Ancient Greek sculptures through the creation of many of his works of the human form in bronze, although he, with the help of his assistants, would also sculpt from marble. Rodin would use modernized versions of the lost wax methods that employed gelatin as a material for the core centers, however, many of his bronze sculptures were made using the technique of sand casting, which diverged slightly from the lost wax method. Sand casting was a method unique to France that spread to other parts of the world like the United States. With sand casting, the original model of the sculpture would be made from clay and then pressed into a sand mixture made with a binding material that would hold the negative space left by the clay model in place.

This sand mold would serve as the form that metal would be poured into, and would usually have a core placed inside of it so it could be re-used, like the indirect method of lost wax casting. Rodin worked with sand-casting foundries, or artisanal companies who specialized in sand-casting, to create the finished pieces of his works. Similar to Ancient Greeks, Rodin’s sculptures of people would sometimes be cast in separate pieces and then assembled together, which also allowed him to create sculptures that re-used pieces or body parts from his other works.

A contemporary of Rodin was Camille Claudel, whose complicated personal and professional life with him seems to overshadow recognition of her as an artist. Her work The Age of Maturity combines the technique of bronze with the movement and dramatism of the Hellenistic period of Ancient Greece. Claudel also worked between the mediums of marble and bronze, and, like Rodin, took advantage of foundries who specialized specifically in lost-wax casting. It was cast twice, so this implies that Claudel took advantage of indirect casting or even sand casting which would have allowed for multiple copies to be produced. With both these methods, and due to the size of this sculpture, this work of art is most likely hollow.

Another artist who worked in bronze was Pablo Picasso. Although he is most renowned for his cubist paintings that combine multiple perspectives of a single object or person onto one surface, he also created the bronze Head of a Woman, which recalls the marble busts or portraits of individuals that were characteristic of Ancient Rome. Could this work of art be an abstract Roman bust? Finally, Augusta Savage created statues that mimicked the visual appearance of bronze in her sculptures such as The Harp, which was also titled Lift Every Voice and Sing.

The Harp was not bronze, but in fact bonded bronze, which is a plaster or other material whose surface is painted to give the impression of bronze. The desire to sculpt figures in imitation of bronze speaks to the way this material has persisted as a desired medium throughout the centuries.

Art is a language that is translatable across time and space. Millennia after the fall of ancient Greece and Rome, artists employed the mediums and styles of the Classical world in the Mediterranean. The popularity of mediums such as marble and methods such as lost-wax casting never went out of style; they were reused in various ways that were shaded by the idiosyncrasies of the modern age.