Sculpture: Material and Memory

Super two day online course from the Wallace Collection looking at the history of sculpture and it’s use.

Richard Stemp, basing his talk on the Wallace Collection but bringing in other examples, took us through the main materials used for sculpture on the first day starting with some wonderful wax plaques, moving through how bronzes were made, work in clay and looking at stone carving. He talked about how small bronzes were made to be held in the hand in the Renaissance and viewed from all angles.

One day two he looked specifically at how sculpture has been used to make portraits and memorialise people. He took us though trends in church memorials with some concentration on Italian Renaissance works but also looking at 18th century British pieces which will certainly make me look at the acres of memorials in Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s in a different way.

This was a really useful introduction to sculpture and much needed break from paintings.

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