René Michel Slodtz (Michel-Ange Slodtz) – Chrysès – Manufacture de Sèvres
Chryses praying to Apollo
Musée du Louvre
Bustie or Bust
Greek sculpture reached its peak for quality and quantity around the mid 5th century BC. This was the era when the Athenians were completing the Parthenon, which featured a lot of elaborately carved sculptures as temple decorations and Myron was also completing his famous sculpture, ‘The Discus Thrower’. The essential characteristic of classical Greek art and its sculptures were mostly of a heroic realism. They always attempted to reveal the human body, in movement or repose, exactly as it appeared to the eye. From this time on there were many experienced sculptors available for public and private works. The use of sculpture to adorn a community’s central building went on to become a powerful European tradition – seen particularly in the church sculpture of the Middle Ages.
The classical Greek sculpture had a strong influence on the Roman empire. From the first century AD, the Romans created more stylized busts and depicted their emperors with an emphasis on certain aspects to legitimize their authority or align themselves with revered predecessors. Mythology, military prowess, youth and beauty were still common themes and public officials also began to commission portrait busts of themselves. They went on to become popular with the wealthy classes as a decorative option and for the smaller villas they were a more pragmatic choice due to their compact size.
Terracotta Head, ancient Ife, Nigeria
Photo © Herbert List – Magnum Photos
Up to around one hundred years ago, portrait busts were not at all uncommon. Although sculptors were not represented among artists by anywhere near the same ratio as today, portrait busts were, in fact, the most common stock in trade of any working sculptor. There was less demand for carved marble or cast bronze statues compared to head and shoulder busts and the style was predominantly realist.
During the first half of the twentieth century, realist portrait busts began to decline in popularity as their style was aligned with the classical busts, which had fallen out of favor during the emergence of Art Deco, Futurism and other modernist trends. Also some of the sculptors themselves chose to abandon its demanding exactitude in favour of simpler, much more expressive forms of three-dimensional work in line with what their counterparts were doing in painting and other areas of art.
The most recent developments has seen an interface connected to a 3d printer for creating 3d busts from selfies, which I think should be called ‘Busties’. A logical development for the Age of Vanity. Most of the contemporary busts presented here are non realist, non portrait creations.
Christophe Charbonnel
Christophe Betmalle from his Multiples series
–2014–
Everything in his work revolves around the larger question: who am I? Who is the other? And it raises the question, endlessly, thus achieving a kind of diary reflecting his various emotions, questions, doubts, evoking love, abandonment, chills, memories. With maturity and experience, the faces are multiplying and widening the surface of paper, revealing the richness of his personality.
Monica van den Berg, ZA
Photographer Lisa Hnatowicz
Medusa bust by Javier Marin, Mexico
South African Anton Smit sculpture ‘Head With Triangles’
Ceramic Rebirth Sculpture by jonislittledolls on Etsy
Rob Van Bergen
Dominique Allain Raku sculpture bust
France
Philippe Faraut sculpture bust
Ceramic bust of a lady holding a cat by Teresa Girones
Gerald Lilliard
‘Inner Voice’ – Mary Ann prack
‘Moon Figure Door’ – Kenneth Armitage, 1948
‘Buste de jeune fille’ – Ossip Zadkine
– 1914 –
Pair of American Hollywood Regency Metallic Finished Plaster Male & Female Busts
Decollect
Rogier Ruys – ‘Prima Donna’
Youthful figure of Lady Precious Green, Chalchihuitlicue, who was a fertility goddess and consort to Tlaloc, the rain god.Mexico
Werner Foreman Archive
Anna Plonka
Amanda Shelsher – ‘Bloom’
2009
Art Nouveau mantle clock by Arthur Waagen
Irina Zaytceva face motif vase
Tribal African Female Sculpture by Artist Fred Press
Kent Home Decorative Objects – Chappaqua, NY 10514 – 1stdibs
Melanie Bourget, via Flickr
2012
Bust in brown patina bronze, représenting a queen ‘ Renaissance ‘ by Vincent Désiré Fauré de Broussé
Leda Decors
Marni Gable
Charlene Doiron Reinhart
China China Bust #81 – Ah Xian
‘Queen Califia’ by Susan Shelton
The state of California was named after the mythical Black Queen Califia.
Chris Riccardo – ‘b & e’
2009
JF GALLERY, West Palm Beach Fl
Debra Fritts
‘E.V. Female bust 1’ by Mark Newman
Austin Productions black ceramic torso, NY
Art Deco sculpture bust – Chana Orloff
She was born in Russia and lived in Israel
‘Mela’ by Melanie Bourget
Ife Terracotta Head, Nigeria, 12th–15th century
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
‘Mujer Feliz’, 2013 Willy Ramos
Odon Wagner Gallery
Elizabeth Ostrander
Mami Gable
Dutch sculptor Fons Bemelman
African Woman – Franz Hagenauer, Vienna
1930s, Patinated Bronze
Fuchs Interiors Berlin
Gene Pearson. Jamaica
Gil Bruvel – ‘Flowing, Unknown’
OCTAVIA ART GALLERY, New Orleans
Grey raku bust – Marika Baumler
Harris Diamant – Head 07
2014 – Slete Gallery
‘I become what I love’ – Dreama Kattenbraker
Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj
Madrid
Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj
Madrid
Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj
Madrid
Lady with an Ermine by Altaluna
Bust of Louis XIV is a marble portrait by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini
1655
Veronique Didier Laurenta
Terracotta memorial head from the Akan people of Ghana
17th – 19th century
‘Mourning Dove’ by Peter Harskamp
‘Pronte Tsarina Xaviera’, Museum Geelvinck Amsterdam (photo Roland Bacon)
‘White Soul ‘- Livio Scarpella, Italy
‘Pronte Tsarina Anahita’ bust – Nadjezjda van Ittersum
Open Garden, Estate Castle Heemstede ceramic
‘Twin Spirits’ – Nagomi Mashaya
2008
‘Slice of Life’ vase head – Patti Warashina
25 inches height
‘Savannah’ – Wayne Salge, Colorado
29 inches height
‘Influence’ -Sergei Isupov
Philippe Faraut
Christy Keeney, Ireland
Teotihuacan, Mexico – Mask from an Incense Burner Portraying the Old Deity of Fire
Woodrow Nash
‘Yemanya, Star of the Sea’. Ceramic figure sculpture. M.A.Bach Art
‘Yrneh’ – sculpture by Chukes
NEXT POST — Roger Capron – vivacious Vallauris ceramics
