Beautiful Sculpture Carved from "Living Rock" (Complete with Pictures)

Art is always beautiful. This time I’ll talk about sculpture. Sculpture is kind of art in realizing the idea into three-dimensional form. We may remember the names of famous classical Greek sculptors such as Lysipos, Phidias, Praxiteles, Myron, Polikleitos,etc. These sculptors have a big role in creating great technique. In modern era, many artists no longer think about sculpture technique in the classical era. As well as Painting, sculpture has a variety of ideas and considerations. Actually, there are several types of sculpture stream, like:Symbolism, Constructivism, Robot Art, and Mobile Sculpture Art.

Knowledge about the proportion is absolutely necessary in making sculpture. To create beautiful of sculpture, we have to know the knowledge of the composition of art sculpture. Such as: characteristic, balance, shape/dimension, movement/ rhythm, proportion, unity and harmony. For more information about sculpture, you can visit my hub with title, "Willard Wigan, the man behind the smallest sculpture in the world".

From this hub I’ll share something “Big”, but still related with sculpture. I mean several “big sculpture” in the world. This is not usual sculpture, but giant sculpture in mountain. Wow.... it was needed a big work and detail in design. It also needed a lot of workers to create this amazing art. This wasn’t a small stone, but a huge media. It was needed cooperation between sculptors and workers in creating great work that can be enjoyed from a distance. Because this is a huge work, so this was a big challenge to make it happen. Curious... please continue to read!

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a granite sculpture carved into heads of former United States presidents. This giant sculpture is located on Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota, USA. This amazing art was carved by Gutzon Borglum and then it continued by his son, Lincoln Borglum. Mount Rushmore has 60-foot (18 m). From outer appearance (in order from left to right), we can see George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. This sculpture was stand in 1,278.45 acres and 5725 feet above sea level. I thought many hubbers from US known very well this sculpture.

This sculpture was located in Brest Fortress as the memorial complex which located in the city of Brest, Belarus. Brest Fortress itself is famous to defense against the Nazis which took place from the 22nd to the 30th of June, 1941. This is a big statue as a tribute to 'courage' against Germany that attacked Soviet Union during the World War II. This statue is also shown toughness as a symbol of Soviet resistance during the Great Patriotic War. From outer appearance this statue gazing down on the eternal flame is named Courage. The Memorial Complex itself was opened in 1971. “Courage” is a typical example of Soviet heroic sculpture.

The Confederate Memorial Carving as the largest reliefs in the world. My hubbers friend from US may know this very well. The Confederate Memorial Carving depicts three Confederate leaders of the Civil War. They are Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis. With their famous horses namely "Blackjack", "Traveller", and "Little Sorrel". The entire carved surface about 3 hectares, this was larger than a football field or three football fields. Based on the history, there are several sculptors who get involved this project. Like: Borglum, American sculptor Augustus Lukeman, Walker Hancock (after this mountain was purchased for $1,125,000), and Roy Faulkner. The carving was complete on March 3, 1972. I got trusted information that the carving of the three men towers about 400 feet above the ground, measures 90 by 190 feet, and is recessed 42 feet into the mountain (Wikipedia.org).

The Bust of Ataturk is a giant sculpture was built in Buca, a suburb of the Aegean port city of Izmir, western Turkey. This sculpture as a memorabilia of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, he was the founder of the modern Turkish Republic. This giant statue was under construction on May 13, 2009.

This statue is located in Bingling temple (Jishi hills) about 35 kilometers (22 miles), southwest of the village Yongjing, Gansu Province. This sculpture carved into natural caves along the Yellow river. The giant Maitreya Buddha stands more than 100 feet or 27 meters tall. The sculptures and carvings are outstanding examples of Buddhist artwork and draw visitors from around the world. This place can be reached by boat from Yongjing river during summer and fall.

Petra is the historical and archaeological city in Jordan who has a piece of stone architecture. Petra lies on the slope of Mount Hor. Petra founded around the 6th century BC as the capital of the Nabataeans.  This place became UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985. This site was featured in movies like Indiana Jones and Transformers. As one of symbol of Jordan, Petra visited by tourist from all over the world.

Leshan Giant Buddha is the largest carved stone Buddha in the world. This is kind of Maitreya Budhha statue with sitting position. This sculpture entered by the UNESCO World Heritage site list in December 1996. Leshan Giant Buddha is located in the southern part of Sichuan province, near the city of Leshan, China. This sculpture was carved out of a cliff and it was built in the Tang Dynasty, about 618–907AD. But all construction was started in 713. This sculpture requires more than 90 years in completing all projects. As the biggest Buddha’s sculpture with height about 71 metres (233 feet), Leshan Giant Buddha is the symbol of poetry, song and story. From the picture we can see the rivers flowing below his feet. Many tourists from all over the world want to see this sculpture in person and Leshan Giant Buddha became tourist attraction in China.

Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument which is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota or about 17 miles away from Mount Rushmore, US. This sculpture was carved by orczak Ziółkowski (the American designer and sculptor) in in 1948. With huge dimension around 641 feet (195 m) wide and 563 feet (172 m) high. Unfortunately, we just see only the head. But if this monument completed, it may become the world's largest sculpture.

This is one of 11 churches made of carved stone. The Church of St.Georgia is a monolithic church in Lalibela, Amhara Region (Ethiopia). Trusted information said that The Church of St.Georgia has been referred as “Eight Wonder of the World”. The Church of St.Georgia wasn’t built with foundation like other church, but it carved from the living rock. It was built in the early thirteenth century. Each church carved from a width on all four sides of the rock. The workers complete the task only used a hammer and chisel. This church itself is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

If we heard about Egypt, there are a lot of mysteries over there. Sometimes it looks unreasonable, because there are many historical building and they untouchable with technology. This time I’ll talk about Abu Simbel, it is the most magnificent monuments in the world. This carving stands on beautiful temple. This temple was constructed for the pharaoh Ramesses II in the 13th century BC (19th Dynasty). This huge sculpture is located near the border of Egypt with Sudan. Abu Simbel was first reported by J. L. Burckhardt in 1813. Egypt government cooperated with UNESCO done a great salvation operation which began in 1964 and continued until 1968. Abu simbel completed with four enormous seated statues of the Pharaoh. Each statue has height over 20 metres or 67 feet high. We can see this on the pictures below.

I hope by reading this hub, we got double benefits. The first benefit is we can learn about how the creative people can make this amazing art. The second benefit is we got others information about travel idea. I thought most of these sculptures became tourism destination.

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