theWRIGHTartblog

Maddison Wright
Intro to Art History
10/15/2013

Sculptors through the Ages

Roxy Paine is an American sculpture born 1966 in New York. Paine creates well formed sculptures out of a variety of materials and has many pieces to show for his work. Though many would argue his work is model making, I believe it is a combination of both. He is modeling after everyday trees however he is making these pieces with meanings behind them. In 2007 Paine created his most well known sculpture and named it the Conjoined. The Conjoined sculpture ranges forty feet in height and forty-five feet in width using stainless steel. This piece was a part of his Dendroid collection along with twenty five other tree-like formations.

Another one of my favorite sculptures in this collection was his first dendriod structure called Impostor. This piece replicates an everyday tree yet is set amongst many others in a forest (blending into its surrounding nature). Paine’s artistic style consists of botanical and naturalistic influences. His idea was to study organic structures versus hand-made structures and observe how the two interact with one another through his works.

During the Renaissance Era, Benvenuto Cellini’s best work of art was a sculpture carved in 1545 named Perseus with the head of Medusa. This art piece was based on a previous sculpture with Medusa and three other greek gods and is located at the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy. This piece was built in bronze with the idea of capturing the motifs of other sculptures he saw in the piazza created by Michelangelo. Perseus is a representation of the Medici and the power they have over their people.

A second sculpture created by Cellini is called Cellini Salt Cellar, or Saliera. This piece is along the lines of a salt shaker, towering 26cm by 33cm and was originally given to Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol. The sculpted man (carrying a trident) represents the sea and the women embodies the earth. This tiny but powerful art piece was carefully hammered with gold.

Although Cellini was known for his Mannerism works and Paine for his Naturalistic pieces, both artists convey exactly what they wanted to show through their own styles. Mannerism and Naturalistic styles are opposite in how an art piece would be conveyed yet Cellini and Paine are both appreciated by what they brought to the history of art.