What is sculpture?

Robert Rauschenberg, Non traditional sculpture

An American painter, sculptor, printmaker, photographer and a performance artist!
He was far too much of an individualist to ever really be fully part of any particular movement. Although he did act as an important bridge between Abstract Expressionism and Pop art. Rauschenberg merged kitsch and fine art, traditional media and found objects combined by inserting appropriate photographs. He believed that painting related to both real life and art 'neither can be made'.  From this belief of his, he created work that moved between these two in a constant flow. Most people know his work as assemblage work.

Mediums with taxidermy goat, rubber tire and tennis ball
I think this final piece with the goat links a lot to my final piece, as it is a painting on the floor, turned into a sculpture by adding the goat and tire on the canvas. My piece is also on the line of is it really a painting or is it a sculpture. Seeing this piece and deciding to me it is a sculpture made me decide that I could do a canvas and it still be represented as a sculpture with how it is presented. I could lay my piece on the ground much like this and it be recognised as a sculpture.

Classical sculpture, Greek

In the early 5th century Greek artists began attempting to sculpt the human form realistically. This then entailed extremely careful observation of a model and trying to understand the mechanics of human anatomy. It goes from how the body adjusts to a pose to how the weight shifts and how the body reacts/behaves in different motions. During this time mainly athlete figures were sculpted which is why you will see many sculptures of men 'at ease', one leg relaxed with a complimentary shift in the shoulders. This style was best expressed during the time in Parthenon marbles. The early classical sometimes called the 'sever style'. Most of the figures are lifelike but have a sort of drapery form about them. In addition to free standing sculptures there was also relief work produce at the time. So where sculpture emphasized the human form, reliefs were employed to create elaborate decorative scenes.