Sculpture in Scotland information

Sculpture in Scotland includes all visual arts operating in three dimensions in the borders of modern Scotland. Durable sculptural processes traditionally include carving (the removal of material) and modelling (the addition of material), in stone, metal, clay, wood and other materials. In the modern era these were joined by assembly by welding, modelling, moulding and casting. Some installation art can also be considered to be sculpture. The earliest surviving sculptures from Scotland are standing stones and circles from around 3000 BCE. The oldest portable visual art are carved-stone petrospheres and the Westray Wife is the earliest representation of a human face found in Scotland. From the Bronze Age there are extensive examples of rock art, including cup and ring marks and elaborate carved stone battle-axes. By the early Iron Age Scotland had been penetrated by the wider European La Tène culture, and a few examples of decoration survive from Scotland. There are also decorated torcs, scabbards, armlets and war trumpets. The Romans began military expeditions into what is now Scotland from about 71 CE, leaving a direct sculptural legacy of distance slabs, altars and other sculptures.

Among the most important survivals of Pictish culture are about 250 carved stones. Class I stones are largely unshaped and include incised animals, everyday objects and abstract symbols. Class II stones are carefully shaped slabs dating after the arrival of Christianity in the eighth and ninth centuries, with a cross on one face and a wide range of symbols on the reverse. Class III stones are elaborately shaped and incised cross-slabs, some with figurative scenes. Items of metalwork have been found throughout Pictland. Dál Riata in the west of Scotland was a cross-roads between the artistic styles of the Picts and those of Ireland. There is evidence for the production of high-status jewellery, hanging bowls and other items that indicate that it was one of the locations where the Insular style was developed, which became common across Great Britain and Ireland. The most significant survivals in sculpture in Insular art are high crosses, large free-standing stone crosses, usually carved in relief with patterns, biblical iconography and occasionally inscriptions. Viking art avoided naturalism, favouring stylised animal motifs to create its ornamental patterns and later ribbon-interlace and plant motifs became fashionable. In the late Middle Ages examples of sculpture are extant as part of church architecture and a small number of significant crafted items have also survived. These include highly decorated sacrament houses, carving and monumental effigies. The greatest group of surviving sculptures from this period are from the West Highlands, beginning in the fourteenth century on Iona under the patronage of the Lordship of the Isles. There are also examples of carved chests and chess pieces.

Scotland's ecclesiastical art paid a heavy toll as a result of Reformation iconoclasm, with the almost total loss of medieval religious sculpture. The tradition of stone and wood carving continued in royal palaces, the great houses of the nobility and even the humbler homes of lairds and burgesses. From the seventeenth century, there was elaborate use of carving in carved pediments, fireplaces, heraldic arms and classical motifs. Plasterwork also began to be used, often depicting flowers and cherubs. Many grand tombs for Scottish nobles were situated in Westminster Abbey, rather than in Scottish churches, but there are a few examples as fine as those in England. As in England, sculpture was dominated by foreign professionals. After the Acts of Union in 1707 there was very little patronage for large and expensive works of art in Scotland. The development of the Grand Tour led to the buying of artistic works including sculpture and interest in classical and Renaissance styles and Scots became the major figures in the trade in antique sculpture. With the growth of civic development there was an increasing demand for public statuary and the portrait bust also became popular. Commissions of new statuary tended to in relatively cheap lead and even more economical painted or gilded plaster. From the late eighteenth century there are a handful of examples of work from Scottish artists.

While opportunities and training for painters had made advances by the beginning of the nineteenth century, a Scottish tradition of professional sculpture was slower to emerge. There was a movement for the erection of major monuments, representing national sentiments and often focused on national figures. The troubled National Monument of Scotland in Edinburgh, remained controversial and failed to gain a consensus on its design. The first significant Scottish sculptor to pursue their career in Scotland was John Steell. This trend reached fruition in the next generation and a recognisable national school was established. Public sculpture was boosted by the centenary of Burns' death in 1896. The late nineteenth century saw the beginnings of the Arts and Crafts movement in Scotland. The major project of the Scottish National War Memorial within Edinburgh Castle, provided opportunities for sculptors, many of whom were drawn from Edinburgh College of Art, helping to cement an Arts and Craft ethos. However, a few artists pursued a more modernist agenda. After the Second World War a new generation of artists emerged, often more directly influenced by modernism. The establishment of the National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh in 1960 provided new possibilities for the display of sculpture. The 1970s saw the emergence of installation and environmental art. In the late twentieth century, new sources of direct government arts funding encouraged greater experimentation. Although the first sculpture park in Scotland was established in 1955, it was in the late 1970s and 1980s that they began to be fully developed. Ideas-based art began to dominate Scottish sculpture from the mid 1980s. A number of women sculptors, public artists and installation artists rose to prominence in what had been a male dominated area. Particularly significant were artists involved with the Transmission Gallery and Variant magazine in Glasgow. From the 1990s Scottish sculptural arts began to gain international attention.