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| Home > Types Of Sculpture > Techniques and Expressions
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| | Techniques and Expressions in Sculpture
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There are mainly two aspects with the help of which the technique of sculpture can be understood. They are the physical and the intellectual aspects respectively. The physical aspect is more concerned with the methods of working with sculptural materials and that basically works in serving of the intellectual aspect.
The purely physical aspects of the technique used in Indian sculpture is dealing with fairly brief approach, rooted in methods that are common to the arts of the world. In this study, the first consideration is that Indian sculptors mostly carve images that are related to a ground, in other words their works are strictly speaking reliefs, even though the figures in them may appear as standing quite free from that ground. The second consideration is that the Indian carver used only points and flat chisels for giving particular shape. Other tools such as claws, bull-noses and gouges seem as never been used. This fact is particularly important to illustrate in connection with the emphasis on convexity. Because, the last of these three are tools of chisel-types & are generally speaking to intend for articulating hollows into a sculptural surface. And after this, the third consideration is that in making any carving, Indians preferred the method of strip cutting to attain their final surface. It also involves cutting off the stone in a series of facets that runs like a continuous band from top to bottom of the figure, and corresponds to one outline of the silhouette.
Last but not the least important fact is that Indian stone sculptures were nearly always intended to be finished off with a finely model-led layer of lime-plaster, which was itself painted for better appearance. This skin appears, as plaster was particularly important in the cave sculptures that were hewn from a relatively coarse stone. The magnificence of the Indian cave sculptures makes the surface more attractive At this carvings, the genuine old plaster is preserved for the sculpture is much enhanced. It is actually less general tending to be more precise and delicate.
But unfortunately, in order to make fresh & fine many layers of plaster and paint were crudely slapped onto old sculptures, time after time. No doubt the bare stone is better than this kind of extra plastering. E.g.at Ajanta and Ellora one can see the real beauty that is missing elsewhere. It is very much clear that once the skill of the sculptural original look is of a high quality, the further plastering is harmful for it. As the plasterer is a modeler not a carver can`t bring the original beauty back if any harm happens. And, in fact, Indian bronze sculptures generally made by using a wax-modeling technique, aim towards attaining the same formal qualities as stone-carvings.
Form: A basic unit of Sculpture
The basic unit with which the sculptures in Indian art were carved is considered as form.  The technique widely used in Indian sculpture - the images are carved specially with their divine splendor. Generally, in all arts there are certain irreducible units of sense after which it is not possible to break down that unit into lesser units, but which can only be `interpreted` in terms of other similar units. These are termed as the `forms` that constitutes the raw material for the art. Such a unit is also the primary symbolic material of expression. Taking about visual art, there are similar units of sense whose structure is compounded with the help of physical elements, but whose symbolic meaning is irreducible.
The `forms` of art are the shapes into which they are carved or moulded. This can also be referred to as symbols of conceptual structures that are rooted in the world of referents experienced. In case of sculpture they fall into two classes one is plastic or static spatial form and the another is linear or sequential temporal form. Of course, art of Painting involves other colouristic and tonal categories. But in sculpture & the `unitary` forms, there is a relationship, which can be analogous to the syntax and grammar of speech. With the help of this relation the basic forms are combined with each other to produce a complete object and to make it capable of reflecting larger imaginative entities than themselves.
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