Statue

For the Seinfeld episode, see The Statue.

"Statues" redirects here. For other uses, see Statues (disambiguation).

Auguste Rodin, The Thinker, Bronze, c.1902, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, Denmark

A statue is a sculpture in the round representing one or more people or animals (including abstract concepts allegorically represented as people or animals), normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger. Its primary concern is representational.

The definition of a statue is not always clear-cut; sculptures of a person on a horse, called Equestrian statues, are certainly included, and in many cases, such as a Madonna and Child or a Pietà, a sculpture of two people will also be. A small statue, usually small enough to be picked up, is called a statuette or figurine.

Many statues are built on commission to commemorate a historical event, or the life of an influential person. Many statues are intended as public art, exhibited outdoors or in public buildings.

Some statues gain fame in their own right, separate to the person or concept they represent, as with the Statue of Liberty.

There is an urban legend concerning a code for mounted statues, whereby the horse's hooves are supposed to indicate how the rider met his end. One hoof off the floor would indicate the rider died of wounds received in battle, or perhaps was just wounded in battle; two hooves off the floor would indicate the rider was killed in battle. An examination of the equestrian statues in most major European cities shows this is not true. If it ever was true, the practice appears to have died out in the 19th century.

Statues are amongst the wonders of the world, with the Colossus of Rhodes and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the Moai of Easter Island among the wonders of the modern world.

Gallery

• 

  Lion man, from Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany, now in Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany, the oldest known zoomorphic statuette, Aurignacian era, 30,000 BC-26,000 BC

• 

  Venus of Dolní Věstonice, ceramic figurine, 29,000 to 25,000 BC

• 

  Venus of Willendorf, one of the oldest known Statuettes, Upper Paleolithic, 24,000 BC-22,000 BC

• 

  Great Sphinx of Giza, c. 2558–2532 BC, the largest monolith 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.

• 

  The Charioteer of Delphi, 474 BC, Delphi Archaeological Museum, Greece

• 

  Hermes and the Infant Dionysus by Praxiteles, 4th century BC, Archaeological Museum of Olympia, Greece

• 

  Venus de Milo, c. 130 - 100 BC, Greek, the Louvre

• 

  Laocoön and his Sons, Greek, (Late Hellenistic), circa 160 BC and 20 BC, White marble, Vatican Museum

• 

  Moai of Easter Island facing inland, Ahu Tongariki, c. 1250 - 1500 AD, restored by Chilean archaeologist Claudio Cristino in the 1990s

• 

  The Great Buddha of Kamakura, c. 1252, Japan

• 

  Michelangelo's David, 1504,The Accademia Gallery, Florence, Italy

• 

  Auguste Rodin, The Burghers of Calais (1884–c. 1889) in Victoria Tower Gardens, London, England.

• 

  The Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor, USA, c.1886

• 

  Henry Bain Smith's bronze of Robert Burns, 1892, above Union Terrace Gardens, Aberdeen, Scotland

• 

  Thomas Brock, John Everett Millais, at Tate Britain 1905

• 

  Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1931

• 

  U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, located in Arlington, Virginia, 1954

• 

  A closeup of the replica statue of Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, 1981, The original c. 200 AD is in the nearby Capitoline Museum, Rome

• 

  Juscelino Kubitschek in Belo Horizonte, c.1981.

• 

  Stone statue outside Moscow's New Tretyakov Gallery c.1985.

• 

  Statue of a priest in Avenida Amazonas, Belo Horizonte, 1990.

• 

  The Ushiku Daibutsu, Amitabha Buddha, 1995, Japan. The third tallest statue in the world, overall 394 feet in height.

• 

  The Kailashnath Mahadev, Bhaktapur. The world's tallest Statue of Lord Shiva, 143 feet.

• 

  Spring Temple Buddha, the world's tallest statue, overall 502 feet in height, completed 2002.

See also

• Bronze sculpture
• Bust
• Colossus
• Equestrian sculpture
• Figurine
• History of sculpture
• List of statues
• List of statues by height      
• Living statue

• Memorial
• Monument
• Sculpture
• Statues of Gudea, c.2100 BC
• Stone carving
• Stone sculpture
• Tallest statues
• The Thinker
• Venus of Willendorf

External links

• UK Public Monument and Sculpture Association
• Ranking of the favourite statue
• Casting Methods & Statue Materials