1: About the historical development of relief:
Since the existence of para-society, art has been an indispensable part of the entire human life. Because the primitive ancestors could not correctly explain natural phenomena, primitive religions emerged. They expressed their worship of nature and gods in various ways. With the development of primitive religion, primitive sculpture art also developed as a manifestation or expression of sacrificial beliefs and worship concepts. The original rock paintings and carvings in the cave initially revealed the original characteristics of relief as an art form. Human material life often affects spiritual performance. In ancient times, primitive humans used colors and lines to represent the natural objects they came into contact with in their hunting and gathering lives, and painted them into flat paintings to express people's concerns about these things. When people invented line carving with the intention of fixing and preserving these images with hard materials such as rocks, the first relief sculptures were produced. With the accumulation of practical experience, people discovered the shadow expression method, and gradually moved from the painting of flat shapes to paying attention to the volume of objects. This focus and the modeling practice of using various materials to achieve volumetric expression promoted the initial development of round sculpture.
Primitive Era Folding
The primitive era rock paintings and line carvings, whether they are realistic objects that simulate nature or decorative patterns, have similar description methods or modeling patterns. The method of line carvings found in various caves in the Nile River Basin and the eastern Mediterranean is to first roughly outline the outer shape, and then to describe it in detail and carve it into a linear shape. With the development of production tools, rock carvings in the nature of bas-relief have also been promoted accordingly. The primitive nomads in northern China left a large number of rock carvings (or rock paintings) recording their life history in the Yinshan Mountains that stretch for thousands of miles. The rock carvings in this area are characterized by their strong realism, mostly with cattle, horses, goats, deer, tigers, leopards and other wild animals and domestic animals as their themes. The original artists painted the graphics on the dense and smooth black stone, and then polished them with specially designed The sharp hard stone was used to carve out graphics, which became an early expression of stone relief art.
Neolithic Age Folding
In the Neolithic Age, humans invented pottery. Shaping techniques and decorative techniques related to pottery further promoted the development of sculptural forms. In addition to painted line paintings, the continuous advancement of pottery decoration has also developed sculptural decorative forms, such as three-dimensional prints, scratches, engravings and stacking patterns, and even relatively independent pottery round sculptures, Relief or openwork. Archaeological data show that pottery sculptures, including clay sculptures, which together with stone sculptures constitute the rich features of primitive sculptures, have developed to varying degrees in vast civilized areas such as the Nile River Basin, Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, central and western Europe, and China.
After the disintegration of primitive society, relief art gradually prospered. In many ancient civilizations, mausoleums were built to pray for eternal life after death, temples were built to worship ancestors and gods, and monuments were erected to praise the achievements of emperors. They are all large-scale and majestic. Relief, a form of expression that combines the entity of sculpture and the narrative of painting, is largely adapted to ancient social life and spiritual orientation. It serves to express people's imaginary sacred world or the Eden-like ideal of heaven, as well as to record reality. Major events in life provide a powerful approach and a vast world.
Folding in the 25th century BC
In the 25th century BC, Egypt had become a powerful centralized slave state, where a large number of reliefs were used to decorate tombs, temples and monuments . The Egyptians creatively used three typical postures (① the whole front; ② the absolute side; ③ the top looking down) to create relief figures, striving to create a quiet, mysterious and majestic atmosphere. The relief-style form of the "Namir Tablets" marks the formation of an enduring Egyptian artistic program. Its simple and concise curve shape and geometric elements have been perfected during the Ancient Kingdom of Egypt. The powerful linear shaping makes the relief have the same meaning as the title and inscription. Here, the hard and straight incised lines emphasize the "momentum" with spiritual symbolic meaning, and are no longer limited to reproducing a realistic image and scene.
The Mesopotamian River Basin in West Asia gave birth to the ancient Mesopotamian civilization.
The interest in "size" revealed here, out of the need to show the majesty of the ruler and the solemnity of the Buddha, caused the statues of heavenly kings and powerful men to flourish greatly. The Hercules shapes, which are mostly placed on the outer walls of grottoes, are always subject to changes in light and shadow. Therefore, low relief is obviously not as suitable as high relief decoration, which is almost a round sculpture.
In Europe, the powerful Roman Empire echoed the Qin and Han dynasties of China. The Romans relied on their political and military genius to create a huge empire. As the inheritors and disseminators of Greek civilization, they were practical, took the best from Greek civilization, and then used it as they pleased. The relief art of the Romans continued the classical laws of the East and Greece. They built triumphal arches and monuments to celebrate victory and sang triumphal songs, and covered them with relief friezes. For the Romans, masterpieces of relief sculptures with the most Roman characteristics, such as Augustus' "Altar of Peace" and "Trajan's Column", undoubtedly fully satisfied their hobby and enthusiasm for telling the story of the empire. The "Trajan Column" was built to commemorate the achievements of Emperor Trajan. The column is 27 meters high and surrounded by a 1-meter-wide relief frieze for 23 times. It completely narrates Trajan's conquest of the Dacians. Battle story. Sculptors used centuries of Greek art skills and achievements in these works that chronicled military exploits, but the Romans emphasized clear narratives and accurate representation of all details in order to remember their merits. There was a certain change in the nature of art, and its main goal was no longer the expression of harmony, grace, and drama. The "Altar of Peace", which is as famous as the Memorial Column, has a slight breakthrough in the technique of relief. Roman artists were more advanced than Greek classical artists in dealing with space and depth. For example, in altar reliefs, they handled the softness of the flat character background and were technically better at it, almost making the characters behind disappear into the background. , raising the relief level of the figures in front higher.
Folding from the 4th century AD to the 14th century
The prevalence of Christianity from the 4th century AD to the 14th century gave European medieval art a strong religious color. In France, Gothic sculptures, mostly used for architectural decoration, have achieved quite high achievements. With the transformation of religious concepts from "sacred" to "humanized", architectural sculptures also developed from low relief to high relief, and gradually became independent from the wall, promoting the formation of new sculpture styles. This style is highlighted in the reliefs on the main entrance of the Chartres teaching school in France. The proportions of the portraits adapt to the requirements of the shape of the building column, and the body is extremely elongated, forming a slender and delicate style. The reliefs of figures wrapped around the column, with their heads sticking out of the column, are round and real. They are no longer low reliefs, but high reliefs that are almost independent of the capitals. This attempt to get rid of the constraints of the architectural framework enabled French sculpture in the next two or three hundred years to move towards real space and real life.
The same situation occurred in the Sui and Tang Dynasties in China when Buddhism was prevalent. The construction and layout of grotto statues provided an important opportunity for the development of relief art, making this period the most important period for relief art after the Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties. A period of unprecedented prosperity. Its biggest breakthrough is to change the former shallow flat line carving form into a three-dimensional and full high relief.
Medieval Folding
The relief art of tropical Africa in the Middle Ages can be compared with the relief art of the same period in other countries around the world. They often take the form of carved doors and windows, bas-reliefs and copper plaques. They maintain a certain independence from religious life and are not the product or commentary of the idea of ??worship. Although they have no architectural characteristics, they maintain a certain relationship with architecture or with palaces and temple buildings. In the work "Panel", a female figure in the center is carved in an almost round-sculpture manner, and the sexual characteristics are prominently emphasized; the geometric patterns engraved on the back panel may represent the following symbolic meanings: triangles Representing the Trinity of God, the prismatic shape represents female characteristics. Here, although the meaning is concrete, its symbolic form is abstract. Benin's bronze plaque "General and Soldiers" strictly follows the principle of symmetry in its composition, and its variation lies in the difference in decorative patterns. The main part of the sculpture adopts a technique close to high relief, which highlights the central figure to be emphasized.
The detailed decoration on the decorative panel is treated with a combination of points, lines and surfaces, giving full play to the exquisiteness of bronze casting, and its exquisiteness is breathtaking.
Renaissance Era Folding
In the Renaissance era, under the guidance of the new spirit of the times - humanistic thought, a new art style that was different from the expressive art of the Middle Ages came into being. As a student, artists began to reflect life and social life in their works, striving to combine science and art. Sculptors understood the world with the wisdom of Neo-Confucianism. On the basis of affirming the realistic sculptures of Greece and Rome, they paid attention to scientific artistic research such as perspective and anatomy, which promoted the development and prosperity of relief art. The bronze door of the Florence Baptistery "Gates of Heaven", created by Ghiberti, uses the scientific principle of perspective to skillfully combine the perspective of painting with the main spatial effect of sculpture. The buildings in the background are almost based on the painter's single It is composed of point of view perspective. The figures in the lower part of the relief are in high relief, and some of the figures' heads are even treated as round sculptures. This form of expression, which transitions from high relief to low relief, is used by the artist in a natural, appropriate and pleasing way. During this period, the discovery of linear perspective techniques in relief brought Western relief realistic techniques into a new stage of development. In the relief "The Banquet of King Herod", Donatello made a striking experiment on its background by using the linear perspective method of painting, that is, on the plane of two-dimensional space, he used to create the illusion of spatial depth. Replaces the flat decorative effect found in medieval paintings or reliefs. This method of background processing became a major feature of Western art during the Renaissance.
The most outstanding representative of relief sculpture in France in the 16th century was Jean Goujon. His relief "Fountain of Innocence" is deeply influenced by Italian humanism, and has both classical charm and human touch. The youthful and energetic images in the work are an impact on medieval asceticism and a praise of man and nature.
Artists who were baptized by the Renaissance movement had to try to surpass the great achievements created by their predecessors through formal innovation. In the mid-18th century, the expansion of the European industrial revolution and the development of the capital economy promoted the further prosperity of Western urban civilization and promoted the continuous development of relief art in architecture, gardens, squares, streets, etc.
"Departure in 1792" is a high relief sculpture created by the sculptor Lu De for the Arc de Triomphe in the Place de l'Etoile in Paris. Compared with the other three themed reliefs on the Arc de Triomphe, it appears more solemn and majestic. The sculptor cleverly used the processing techniques of association and anaphora. Through the movement of the Statue of Liberty and the man with sideburns who are stepping forward and reaching back to call, people can naturally feel the flow of people following them; due to the use of anaphora The technique of dividing the crowd into upper and lower levels makes people feel that their forward movement is rapid, powerful and real, and even creates the feeling that the statue figures seem to be walking out of the wall. "Departure" is a model work of French romantic sculpture during this period. Works using similar techniques include "Dance" by Lüde's student Carbo. One of the same characteristics they show is that they are not only good at processing The dynamic rhythm and ups and downs of the sculpture fit well into the overall architectural wall. All this breaks through the stable and rigid format of classical relief, making the relief have infinite vitality and vitality in a limited space.
Folding since the end of the 19th century
Since the end of the 19th century, the entire Western world has undergone profound changes due to the influence of industrial civilization. Different cultural trends of thought have emerged, and traditional aesthetic values ??and concepts have been affected. challenge. Under the changing situation, reliefs with various themes have become independent from the main bodies they decorate, and their styles and forms have become increasingly diversified.
The French sculptor Rodin, with his outstanding innovative consciousness and practice, started the engine of sculpture change, making him a landmark in the transformation of Western sculpture art from classical to modern. Rodin's masterpiece of genius in the field of relief sculpture is "The Gates of Hell", which he devoted his entire life to. He almost subconsciously reflects his own experience and insights into characters and society in his works, making them deeply human and extremely charming. "Gate of Hell" is different from previous architectural decorative reliefs.
In the past, similar reliefs were mostly composed according to the storyline, and the segmented layout appeared orderly and in line with the logic of plot development. Although this work only shows one theme, its composition is irregular. It certainly contains careful conception and layout, but when viewed as a whole, everything seems to be overwhelming, and every gap in the door is carved with people who have been sent to hell. Due to the undulating high-relief and low-relief sculptures on the plane, complex and unpredictable shadows are formed. The entire door looks gloomy, full of movement, and seems to resound with the noise of hell. When the work was first erected as a free-standing plaster replacement in the Place de la Périque in Paris, it was attacked by students from the Paris Academy of Fine Arts and even smashed into hundreds of pieces. Today, when people sincerely appreciate Rodin's works, it is difficult to imagine the cold reception and criticism the author received back then. But history ultimately chose Rodin, which is really ironic.
In the field of relief sculpture, Rodin's student Boudel showed more challenging form exploration and practice than Mr. He absorbed the decorative characteristics of Egyptian, Indian, and especially medieval Gothic sculptures, emphasized the pursuit of architectural feel in reliefs, and paid attention to applying architectural elements to reliefs. His relief works always use plane geometric processing of the background, and the concise, general, and straight shaping techniques and style form the uniqueness of Budel's sculptural language.
20th Century Folding
Relief sculpture has experienced unprecedented development throughout the 100 years of the 20th century. As the round sculptures become more and more independent and develop revolutionary changes, the reliefs also begin to show their unique artistic charm in an independent manner, conveying a more independent spiritual connotation. Like paintings and round sculptures, the relief art of this period was influenced by many styles, including Symbolism, Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, Surrealism, Dadaism, Pop Art, etc., all in the field of relief. expressed. On the whole, relief art has shown two major trends in the past hundred years. One kind continues along Rodin's route, which generally falls into the category of realism. A group of effective and widely influential sculptors were active among them, such as Boudel, Maillol, Koehler Huizhi, Meunier, Giacomo Mann, Augustin Kitchen, and later Georges Jeanclos, etc. . In different historical periods and social atmospheres, they always adhere to the traditional volume and concrete form of sculpture. At the same time, they also explore modern styles and forms with their own characteristics based on their own feelings and the new ideas they are exposed to. One kind takes a different approach and goes in the opposite direction. This is a huge team that brings together many schools or threads from modernism to postmodernism. They explore various forms that tend to diversify and extreme, and are advancing on the road of anti-tradition. A group of sculptors such as Gauguin, Matisse, and Arp introduced innovative experiments in painting into the field of sculpture in the early 20th century, taking the first step in the spatial expansion of modern relief sculptures that broke through the traditional concept of volume.
Looking back at the evolution of world relief art, it can be said that relief art is constantly developing through inheritance, reference and transformation. Artists from all civilized regions, all nationalities and all historical periods have made memorable contributions to the construction and exploration of relief art. There is no doubt that all historical achievements and practical experiences from all mankind have contributed to the future of relief art. A solid foundation has been laid for advancement.
With continuous spatial breakthroughs, the modern sculpture movement entered an era of pluralism often called postmodernism in the 1980s. During this period, it was difficult to discern the relationship between various styles as before. The artistic norms, whether traditional or innovative, that enabled people to make precise judgments no longer exist nor are they created anymore. In fact, diversity itself has invisibly become an anti-normative “norm”—anything, no matter how extreme it is or lacks recognition, is art as long as it is recognized as “art” by anyone. In this case, art is left with only the word "art", without any substantive connotation sufficient to define it. Conceptual comprehensive relief has also been in a situation where it is difficult to standardize and define, and in the diversified trend of postmodernism, it is gradually moving towards the complete dissolution of relief itself and even art itself.