Work in progress on a quarter lifesize maquette of a figure in motion.
The ultimate challenge for the figurative sculptor is that of a figure in motion. I alluded to this my post The Curse of Committees. E. H. Gombrich in his book "Art & Illusion" writes to the effect:
...Paintings and sculptures have more beauty and greater force when they are a sketch than when they are finished...sketches express an idea in a few strokes...while a laboured effect and too much industry deprives it of force. It is an art in which the artist's skill in suggesting must be matched with the public's skill at taking hints. The literal-minded Philistine is excluded from this closed circle.
Herein lies my challenge. Not with a single figure, but with a series of three figures that show the transition from one position to the next. You can then add the difficulty of retaining the spontaneity when enlarging the maquettes to lifesize. There will be more about this in forthcoming posts.
The sculptor Auguste Rodin was passionately interested in movement. The maquette shown below is one of a series he made on the theme of dance.
Dance Movement "A". Rodin Museum, Paris.
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