Statue

Ancient statues often show the bare surface of the material of which they are made. For example, many people associate Greek classical art with white marble sculpture, but there is evidence that many statues were painted in bright colors.[3] Most of the color has weathered off over time; small remnants were removed during cleaning; in some cases small traces remained that could be identified.[3] A travelling exhibition of 20 coloured replicas of Greek and Roman works, alongside 35 original statues and reliefs, was held in Europe and the United States in 2008: Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity.[4] Details such as whether the paint was applied in one or two coats, how finely the pigments were ground or exactly which binding medium would have been used in each case—all elements that would affect the appearance of a finished piece—are not known. Richter goes so far as to say of classical Greek sculpture, "All stone sculpture, whether limestone or marble, was painted, either wholly or in part."[5]

Medieval statues were also usually painted, with some still retaining their original pigments. The coloring of statues ceased during the Renaissance, since excavated classical sculptures, which had lost their coloring, became regarded as the best models.

Italian Renaissance art identified the standing statue as the key form of Roman art to survive, and there was a great revival of statues of both religious and secular figures, to which most of the leading figures contributed, led by Donatello and Michelangelo. The equestrian statue, a great technical challenge, was mastered again, and gradually statue groups.

These trends intensified in Baroque art, when every ruler wanted to have statues made of themself, and Catholic churches filled with crowds of statues of saints, although after the Protestant Reformation religious sculpture largely disappeared from Protestant churches, with some exceptions in large Lutheran German churches. In England, churches instead were filled with increasing elaborate tomb monuments, for which the ultimate models were continental extravagances such as the Papal tombs in Rome, those of the Doges of Venice, or the French royal family.

In the late 18th and 19th century there was a growth in public open air statues of public figures on plinths. As well as monarches, politicians, generals, landowners, and eventually artists and writers were commemorated. World War I saw the war memorial, previously uncommon, become very widespread, and these were often statues of generic soldiers.

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  Löwenmensch figurine, from Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany, now in Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany, possibly the oldest undisputed statuette. Aurignacian era, 40,000 BC-35,000 BC
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  Two views of the Venus of Hohle Fels figurine, 40,000 BC-35,000 BC (6 cm (2.4 in) tall), one of the earliest known, undisputed examples of a depiction of a human being
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  Venus of Dolní Věstonice, ceramic figurine, 29,000 BC-25,000 BC
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  Venus of Willendorf, one of the oldest known statuettes, Upper Paleolithic, 24,000 BC-22,000 BC
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  Ain Ghazal statues, c. 7000 BC, found in Ain Ghazal, Jordan
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  Great Sphinx of Giza, c. 2558–2532 BC, the largest monolithic statue in the world, standing 73.5 metres (241 ft) long, 6 metres (20 ft) wide, and 20.22 m (66.34 ft) high. Giza, Egypt.
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  The Charioteer of Delphi, 474 BC, Delphi Archaeological Museum, Greece
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  Hermes and the Infant Dionysus by Praxiteles, 4th century BC, Archaeological Museum of Olympia, Greece
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  Venus de Milo, c. 130 - 100 BC, Greek, the Louvre
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  Laocoön and his Sons, Greek, (Late Hellenistic), c. 160 BC and 20 BC, White marble, Vatican Museum
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  Nara Daibutsu, c. 752, Nara, Japan
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  Gommateshvara Bahubali, c. 978-993 AD, 57 feet (17 m) high
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  Moai of Easter Island facing inland, Ahu Tongariki, c. 1250 - 1500, restored by Chilean archaeologist Claudio Cristino in the 1990s
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  The Great Buddha of Kamakura, c. 1252, Japan
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  Michelangelo's David, 1504, The Accademia Gallery, Florence, Italy
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  Auguste Rodin, The Burghers of Calais, 1884–c. 1889, in Victoria Tower Gardens, London, England.
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  Henry Bain Smith's bronze of Robert Burns, 1892, above Union Terrace Gardens, Aberdeen, Scotland
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  A statue of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, the Grand Duke of Finland, at the Senate Square in Helsinki, Finland, sculpted by Walter Runeberg and Johannes Takanen, 1894
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  Auguste Rodin, The Thinker, 1880-1904
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  Camille Claudel, The Waltz, 1889–1905, Musée Camille Claudel, Nogent-sur-Seine, France
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  The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen, Denmark by Edvard Eriksen 1913
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  Statue of Dr. Jose Rizal. at the Luneta Park, Philippines c.1908
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  Thomas Brock, John Everett Millais, at Tate Britain 1905
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  Standing Nude (1912), by Amedeo Modigliani
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  The statue of Hans Egede, 1921, at Nuuk, Greenland
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  Mount Rushmore, by Gutzon Borglum, 1927–1941, Black Hills, South Dakota
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  U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, located in Arlington, Virginia, by Felix de Weldon 1954
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  A closeup of the replica statue of Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, 1981; the original c. 200 AD is in the nearby Capitoline Museum, Rome
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  Spring Temple Buddha, the world's second tallest statue, overall 128 m (420 ft) in height, completed 2002, China.
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  Lord Murugan Statue, Batu Caves, Malaysia, 140 feet (42.7 m).
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  Balance of Nature statue near VUDA Park, Visakhapatnam
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  Aristotle in the Aristotlepark of Stagira
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  Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was one of the founding fathers and Iron Man of the Republic of India; the Statue of Unity, the world's tallest statue
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  Alison Saar, "Swing Low", 2008, Harlem

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Statues.

• UK Public Monument and Sculpture Association