Portrait Sculptures

What could be more striking than an expressive sculpted face that looks back at yours? As you know, sculpture, more than any other medium, brings a unique dimension to the work itself. That's why KAZoART has gathered here its most beautiful portrait sculptures, made by artists that adopt drastically different styles, and do not hesitate to vary their techniques in order to produce original and amazing works.

Famous sculpted portraits

In stone, wood, metal or terracotta, in the History of Art, portrait sculpture is expressed in different ways. Many artists practice this very technical art, and each period of history is marked by different master sculptors. Names that come to mind are those of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (The Imperial Prince and his dog Nero; Eugenie Fiocre), Auguste Rodin (Balzac), Camille Claudel (L'âge mûr), Emile-Antoine Bourdelle (Ludwig van Beethoven), Alexandre Charpentier (Louis Welden Hawkins), Charles Cordier (Negro of Sudan).

Portraiture in sculpture

The history of sculpture and portraiture goes all the way back to antiquity and finds its place among the world’s many civilizations. At that time, portraits sculpted in the round, or created from scratch to form a work of art in its own right, were most often reserved for high dignitaries and royalty (kings, queens, pharaohs, gods ...). In the Middle Ages, in Western Art, sculpted portraits were both fictitious, based on precise codes of representation, and realistic when pieces were commissioned. Religious art dominated medieval times, which is why sculptures that date back to this period are essentially representations of biblical protagonists and characters (angels, messiahs, etc.).

During the Renaissance, there was a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman sculptures. Indeed, sculptors were greatly inspired by their predecessors in the creation and representation of their works, but innovated by bringing a certain expressiveness to facial sculptures. The style and method of the creation of these sculptures vary greatly depending on the civilization and the period in which they were produced.

Nowadays, sculptors who wish to create busts and portraits of men and women have many materials at their disposal (wood, clay, plaster, stone, metal, objects, etc.) and can borrow the codes of their elders to better learn how to detach themselves from them in order to perfect their artistic approach.