Sculpture (latin=shaping) is sinonim for art work. It's 3D from created in purpuse for artistic expresion. Same as it has artistic purpose, aswell it has functional aspect and we can call that created object sculpture only if work of art is dominant in that. When functional and artistic work is balanced, then it is we can call it functional sculpture. One of the most common purposes of sculpture is religion. For example Greece Mitology, where statues are used to create shapes of Ancient Greek Gods, like statue of Zeus and similar. Ancient Greece used sculptures very often and their shaping and skills of making them still is a role model. Their variety of making sculptures itself like number of them and their significant purpose in their belive has made status popular and spread across whole Europe. But it's origin leads back even futher. Small sculptures as personal possession go back to earlier prehistorical art, and use of large sculptures as public art which goal is to impress the public with it, goes back to the Great Sphinx 4.500 years ago. Some undoubtedly advanced cultures, such as the Indus Valley civilization, appear to have had no monumental sculpture at all, though producing very sophisticated figurines and seals. Where Ancient Egypt culture seems to have devoted enormous resources to create their significant and world popular sculptures which persist even today. Thoose are large scale monuments. Beside Sphinx, today well known large scale sculptures are pyramids, the tombs of pharaohs. Those sculptures with sphinx are visited today by enormous number of turist that want to see that human work of art on that large scale. Compared to Ancient Egypt, Anscient Greece and Rome were giving more purpouse to Portrait sculptures like we said before. There portrait sculptures were highest mark of honor. Portrait sculptures began in Mesopotamia where rulers were mark of honor on their coins or 3D sculptures. Sculptures in Ancient Greece were statues of some historical important characters mostly their gods or heroes, where they represented them in some glorious act. While in Ancient Rome statues had, beside roles for gods, roles for their emperores, consults, councils, conquerers, etc...A basic distinction is between sculpture in the round, free-standing sculpture, such as statues, not attached (except possibly at the base) to any other surface, and the various types of relief, which are at least partly attached to a background surface. Relief is often classified by the degree of projection from the wall into low or bas-relief, high relief, and sometimes an intermediate mid-relief. Sunk-relief is a technique restricted to Ancient Egypt.Relief is the usual sculptural medium for large figure groups and narrative subjects, which are difficult to accomplish in the round, and is the typical technique used both for architectural sculpture, which is attached to buildings, and for small-scale sculpture decorating other objects, as in much pottery, metalwork and jewellery.

Glossary:Sphinx - a winged monster of Thebes, having a woman's head and a lion's body. It propounded a riddle about the three ages of man, killing those who failed to solve it, until Oedipus was successful, whereupon the Sphinx committed suicide.Distinction - a difference or contrast between similar things or people.

Literatura:1. http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skulptura

Travnik, decembar 2014.1