Glossary

The belief that the pursuit of beauty is the most important goal, and that it is the artist's duty to orchestrate selected elements from nature into a composition that, like music, exists for its own sake, without regard to moral or didactic issues. Prominent in the nineteenth century, now it often carries the connotation of decadence or preciousness. Also spelled estheticism. It is often associated with the fin de siècle circle of writer Oscar Wilde (English, born Ireland, 1854-1900), painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler (American, 1834-1903), and illustrator Aubrey Beardsley (English, 1872-1898).
 

Inert granular material such as sand or gravel which is mixed with cement to make concrete or mortar, or with a binder to make some other solid compound. Sand is the most common aggregate. An aggregate might be added to a mixture to add strength, hardness, softness, color, texture, or economy. For instance, to make plaster easier to carve, one can add an aggregate of vermiculite or perlite.
 

A metal produced by combining two or more metals — mixed together at the molecular level, in their molten state. Examples of alloys: brass, britannia, bronze, electrum, nichrome, niello, pewter and steel.
 

A French term meaning "low-raised work." This art, along with high relief, is known collectively as relief sculpture -- meant to be seen primarily from one direction -- as opposed to sculpture which is in the round or full round. (pr. bah'ruh-leef')
 

Any of various alloys of copper and tin, sometimes with tin or other metals. It has commonly been used in casting. A work cast in bronze is sometimes referred to as a bronze. It may also refer to the color of bronze, a moderate yellowish to olive brown..

When a bronze decoration is gilt it is often called ormolu.

Many of the alloys that are described as bronze are actually brass, which is the alloy of copper and zinc. Alloys with both zinc and tin are known as gunmetals.
 

The technique of cutting and abrading the surface of a block of material to shape it into aparticular form. Among the materials appropriate for carving in schools include clay, chalk, plaster, soft salt blocks, artificial sandstone, bar soap, and wax.
Quote:"The greatest carver does the least cutting."Lao-tzu (6th century BCE), Chinese philosopher of Taoism. By this Lao-tzu meant: don't try too hard.
 

To form (molten metal, or liquid plaster or plastic, for example) into a three-dimensional shape by pouring into a mold; or something formed by this means. Also, an impression formed in a mold or matrix.
 

A carved female figure used as a column. Dressed in long robes, she supports an architectural element on her head. Her male counterpart is an atlant, atlantid, or atlas. The word caryatid is Greek, and originally referred to maidens of Caryae in Laconia who performed ritual dances at the festival of Artemis.
 

The position of a human figure in painting or sculpture in which the hips and legs are turned in a different direction from that of the shoulders and head; the twisting of a figure on its own vertical axis. Especially a way of sculpting a human figure in a natural pose with the weight of one leg, the shoulder, and hips counterbalancing each other. Thus it is sometimes called "weight shift." This technique was developed late in the ancient Greek period.
 

In lost-wax casting, a technique in which the original model is lost — melted out of the mold. If the work is hollow, the wall of metal is generally heavy — the wax model having been modeled thickly over a core of very simple shape.
(Also see indirect casting)
 

To create a raised design or relief on a flat surface, usually of metal or paper, by pressing or hammering a design into the back side. Embossment is the result of having been embossed.
 

A portion of a whole, a fragment is often what remains of a damaged or ruined object. A fragment of pottery is called a shard. Or, to make fragments.
 

Lost-wax metal casting in which the model that is "lost" is not the original model, but a wax cast from a piece mold taken from the original model. This second wax model is sometimes called an indirect casting, or an intermodel. If the indirect casting is hollow, a core is pored into it. The ancient Greeks developed this method of casting.

Indirect casting has numerous advantages because it:

1 - Ensures an even wall of wax.
2 - Ensures an even wall of metal.
3 - Enables repairs to be made if part of the cast is defective.
4 - Enables another version to be made if the whole cast fails.
5 - Permits the multiple edition of a sculpture, because the original model is preserved.

Indirect casting was rediscovered during the Renaissance.
 

To be viewed from all sides; freestanding. When referring to sculpture, a type that is surrounded on all sides by space. The opposite of relief. Theater in the round is a kind of performance space in which the audience is arranged to surround the stage. This is also true of amphitheaters and arenas.
 

A thick jacket of refractory material built around a wax model which forms the mold in lost-wax casting. It can be made of plaster or clay mixed with grog, applied in layers, with the finest and softest layers painted or gently worked over the wax model, and the outer layers reinforced with wire.
 

A special oven or furnace that can reach very high temperatures and is used to bake, or fire clay. Kilns may be electric, gas, or wood-fired. The one pictured here is an electric model.
 

Although sometimes used as a synonym for "maze," a labyrinth is classically a single (unicursal) pathway that leads physically to the center of a linear pattern and then back out by simply reversing direction on the same path. In a maze there are invariably riddles to be solved — dead-ends abound. Labyrinths have been known to the human race for over 3,500 years, conjuring up such images as the ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, confined in a labyrinthine hallway at Knossos. Labyrinths have been thought to hold spiritual meanings in various cultures. They have been used as solar and lunar calendars in others. In Arizona, in the American Southwest, the Hopi use the form of a labyrinth in their religious symbolism, and the Tohono O'odham "Man in the Maze" is a "seven-circuit" labyrinth, a part of this native people's creation myth. Metaphorically, "labyrinth" or "labyrinthine" might signify a thing that is highly intricate or convoluted in character, composition, or construction.
 

A casting process for which a sculptor must first produce his sculpture in wax. He creates a mold around this made of refractory materials. When the mold is heated, the wax melts away, so that molten metal can replace it, reproducing exactly the original wax sculpture. Also known by the French term cire-perdue (pr. SEER-payr-DOO).
 

In ceramics, a state in which clay has lost moisture to evaporation, but has not yet completely hardened; clay damp enough to be joined to other pieces with scoring and slip.
 

A sculpture technique in which a three-dimensional form is manipulated in a soft material such as clay — either modeling clay (Plasticine is a well-known brand) or ceramic clay — or wax. The term also refers to the effect of light on a three-dimensional form. The three-dimensional quality of such a form is emphasized by means of light, shadow, and color. Reproducing the effect of light, shadow, and color in a drawing of such a form makes it seem more realistic.
 

Elaborately, even excessively ornamental; showy. In typography, highly ornamental characters, usually letters. In the Middle Ages, such letters were used as decorative initial letters on pages of manuscripts and books. Today ornate letters are used as novel, decorrative elements employed very selectively in graphic design. Ornate is sometimes used to mean baroque or complex.
 

A sheen or coloration on any surface, either unintended and produced by age or intended and produced by simulation or stimulation, which signifies the object's age; also called aerugo, aes ustum, and verdigris. Typically a thin layer of greens (sometimes reds or blues), usually basic copper sulfate, that forms on copper or copper alloys, such as bronze, as a result of oxidation and corrosion. Metal objects have naturally acquired patinas when long buried in soil or immersed in water. Such naturally formed patinas have come to be greatly prized. There are many formulae for the pickles and chemical treatments of metals which may be employed to encourage the formation of patinas.
 

The term plaster usually refers to plaster of Paris (also called gesso) — a mixture of powdered and heat-treated gypsum, which can be mixed with water (about 2 parts plaster to each part of water), hardening to a smooth solid which does not shrink or lose volume because it hardens before all the water can evaporate. Though heated in its manufacture, it needs no heat to mature the way ceramic clays do. A common building material as well as a versatile medium in sculpture, can be either the material cast in a mold or the material of a mold, a material to be modeled, or carved, or attached to something else.
 

Resistant to high temperatures. Refractory materials are used for molds in lost-wax casting and for kiln furniture on which ceramic ware stands while it is fired.
 

A type of sculpture in which form projects from a background.

There are three degrees or types of relief: high, low, and sunken. In high relief, the forms stand far out from the background. In low relief (best known as bas-relief), they are shallow. In sunken relief, also called hollow or intaglio; the backgrounds are not cut back and the points in highest relief are level with the original surface of the material being carved.
 

To make scratches or creases in pieces of clay to be joined together. Scoring and applying slip to such roughened surfaces creates a bond that holds the pieces together. If slip acts as an adhesive, and scoring makes two pieces of clay like the opposite sides of a zipper, their combined action — a zipped zipper with hardened adhesive inside — should be permanent. See coil and slab construction.
 

A three-dimensional work of art, or the art of making it. Such works may be carved, modeled, constructed, or cast. Sculptures can also be described as assemblage, in the round, and relief, and made in a huge variety of media.
 

Subtraction is the act of removing. In art, an action is subtractive when it produces subtraction, as of some materials in carving, for example. Materials especially appropriate for subtractive sculpture in schools include clay, chalk, plaster, soft salt blocks, artificial sandstone, soap, and wax. The mixing of pigments is also called subtractive color mixing (as opposed to the additive mixing of incident light to achieve additive color mixing). The subtractive primary colors are cyan, yellow, and magenta.
 

A reddish-brown clay that can be used much as other ceramic clays, fired after it is formed and dried, and often used for pottery, sculpture and architectural decoration. Its reddish-brown color results from its iron-oxide content.

In contrast, unbaked clay is called terra cruda.
 

Having, or appearing to have, height, width, and depth.
 

In lost-wax casting, a channel through which molten metal can enter a mold (runners) and air and gas can escape (risers). This term applies to the wax rods attached to the wax model that result in the formation of these channels, and for the rods of metal that may be cast within channels once metal is put into the mold. In some regions, to attach the wax rods is called spruing, in others it is called rodding.
 

A "statue" is a three-dimensional form of a person or animal sculpted, carved, modeled, or cast in any material, usually an entire figure, and especially when done in the round rather than in relief.

"Statue" is not a synonym for "sculpture." Many other three-dimensional forms are considered sculptures than are considered statues.

A "statuette" is a small statue.

"Statuary" is a collective term for statues; a group of statues. It can refer to the art of making statues, and is also a rare term for a sculptor.

"Statue" is related to such words as "statute," "stationery," "statistics," and even "destitute." The Latin word "status," meaning "position" or "state," is the source of these and other English words. Some terms of this family are directly related to "status," while others come to English through "statuere," a Latin verb from "status" that means "to set up." "Statuere" also gave us "constitute," "institute," and "restitution," among other similar-sounding words.
 

Any of various natural, oily or greasy heat-sensitive substances, including beeswax, ceresin, carnauba, tallow, paraffin, and micro-crystalline wax. Most waxes consist of hydrocarbons or esters of fatty acids that are insoluble in water but soluble in most organic solvents. Ozocerite or paraffin is a solid, plastic or liquid substance, a petroleum byproduct, used in coating paper, in crayons, and other products. Both natural and synthetic waxes are used in painting as binders, and as an important ingredient in candles and polishes. They are also important materials used for carving and modeling, generally over an armature, and in casting.

Solvents used to dissolve various waxes include alcohol, acetone, benzine, turpentine, ether, and carbon tetrachloride. Waxes are often softened for carving or modeling by heating in a double boiler or with a light bulb, by sculpting with tools warmed over an alcohol lamp, or by the use of soldering irons, alcohol lamps, and blowpipes. Wax can be melted for casting in a double boiler. Additives used with waxes include rosin, dyes, petroleum jelly, mineral oil, and many solvents.
 

The process of joining metals by fusing them together under direct, intense heat. A commonly used source of heat for welding is an oxyacetylene torch. A metal rod may be applied to the joint which melts into any gaps and strengthens the bond