How to use a pointing machine The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2024-10-22 | How to use a pointing machine
Episode 88 - Greco-Roman Wrestling The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-09-19 | The Venus De Milo, the Torso Belvedere, The Winged Victory, The Laocoon - some of the most famous Antique sculpture in the world. Strange that we know so little about who made them and why! So what makes them so famous? Find out the unexpected reasons here.
Episode 05 - Canons of proportion The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | The history of canons of proportions and their use by sculptors is discussed in this week's episode. From the Egyptians up to the present day, artists have sought the key to caputring an ideal, or a norm, in human form. As it happens, notions of ideals - and of what we consider normal - change over time, which has given rise to dozens of canons practiced by different artists at different times. Host Jason Arkles discusses several, and how artists have always sought to tie the measurements of the human form to other notions of perfection- be it the sacred, or geometry - or even sacred geometry.
Episode 08 - Cellini, in his own words The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | The sculptor of the famous Perseus and Medusa, Benvenuto Cellini, might have been a one-hit wonder if it were not for his other masterpiece, his Autobiography - the first from an artist. In his book, Cellini details the construction and casting of his Perseus - a precious firsthand account of a Renaissance sculptor at work - as well as his exploits as a nasty, brutish, jealous, pandering thug who murdered and raped his way through life. Your shameless host Jason Arkles brings the Autobiography to life in a dramatic reading, complete with cheap sound effects and silly voices.
Episode 06 - Michelangelo, man and Myth The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | The Divine Michelangelo - The man could do no wrong. ...At least, according to Michelangelo. One of his lasting legacies, apart from his art, is the mythology about his life and work that he himself perpetuated through the commissioning of a biography. But legends aside, Michelangelo still is one of the gresatest artists ever to have lived. This episode discusses his early years as an artist, his training and his influences, his early successes and even his (gasp!) mistakes. he was only human, after all (despite rumors to the contrary).
Episode 03 - What is Clay? The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Have you heard the old studio saying that clay gets better the more you use it? how and why does that work? In this shop talk eposide, Jason discusses more than you ever wanted to know about clay - its composition, its properties, and how we can alter our own clay to get it to do what we want. be sure to check out the episode's image gallery over at www.thesculptorsfuneral.com, were there are plenty of images and even a few videos detailing how to recycle your clay and change its workability for the better.
Ep.02 - Donatello, an Introduction The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | In this episode, The life and work of Donatello are discussed, in relation to his influence for all European sculpture which followed. Host Jason Arkles makes a case for Donatello as being the single most influential sculptor in the last 700 years.
Episode 01 - Introduction, and The End The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Jason introduces himself, explains what this podcast is all about, and why he calls it The Sculptor's Funeral; and then, discusses the near-death experience of figurative sculpture during the 20th century.
Episode 04 - Alberti and De Statua The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | If you sculpt, you probably have a small library of how-to sculpture manuals. Sculptors writing about sculpture goes way back - but how far back? In this episode, Host Jason Arkles discusses the f sculpture manual that was written during the early renaissance by the original Renaissance Man, Leon Battista Alberti. A personal friend of Donatello, Brunelleschi, and Ghiberti, Alberti's treatise on the science and practice of sculpture during the early Renaissance show us just how much in common we have with the past masters- and how much we might be able to learn from them.
Episode 09 - Giambologna The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Giambologna's remarkable and prolific career is the missing link between the Renaissance and the Baroque, between Michelangelo and Bernini, and between medieval and modern conceptions of how a sculptor's career is conducted. So many elements which Giambologna pioneered in his work - casting works in editions, jobbing out technical aspects of sculpture to specialists, and the decorative, small scale female nude for popular consumption - are still with us today.
Episode 67 - Interview with Michael Defeo The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | In this interview, Jason talks with Michael Defeo, a sculptor who has developed dozens of characters for animated features like Ice Age and Despicable Me, using every tool at his disposal, from clay to Zbrush and beyond. But what is 'digital' sculpting? Is it 'really' sculpting? How does it work? Mike and Jason discuss these questions and more.
Episode 14 - Bernini, Part One The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Apollo and Daphne, Pluto and Persephone, The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa... Never has a single sculptor produced as many absolute masterpieces as Gianlorenzo Bernini. In this first of a two-part episode, Jason discusses Bernini's biography and his important early works which initiated the Baroque Era of sculpture.
Episode 16 - The French Connection The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Exactly how and when did the focus of European art move from Florence and Rome, to Paris? This episode explores the rise of the French academic system and the forerunners of the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts and the Paris Salon under the absolute monarchy of Louis XIV.
Episode 49 - Tools: If you want something done right.... The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Today's podcast features interviews of three sculptors - Matt Kindy, Spencer Schubert, and Philippe Faraut - who have found that the best quality sculpture tools are the ones they make themselves. And luckily for us, these sculptors also handcraft their high quality tools in small amounts and make them available to others.
Episode 15 - Bernini and the Total Work of Art The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Bernini Part Two! We discuss how Bernini sought to combine color, sculpture light and architecture into a single, unified, and total work of art. But Bernini went beyond even that, by creating what can be described as 'layered realities' within several of his works resulting in some of the richest and most complex sculptures ever created.
Episode 42 - TRAC 2015 The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | The Representational Art Conference was the largest event of the year for the world of figurative art. Host Jason Arkles speaks with Michael Pearce, Alicia Ponzio, and Poppy Field, all participants in this year's TRAC in different ways.
Episode 10 - From Apprentice to Academy The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Whether it's at a university degree program or in a small private atelier, most figurative sculptors today train at schools, rather than as apprentices to professional sculptors. But what was the first art school in Europe? why was it created? Your host Jason Arkles details the history of the rise of the academy as a way to train artists in a more varied, eclectic, and intellectually challenging program than traditional apprenticeships allowed.
Episode 13 - Can Art Die? The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Following up on the Elgin Marbles debate, Jason explores the nature of public art, and whether or if a work of art can cease to be. How fragmented, altered, abused, displaced, and appropriated can a sculpture be before it is a relic, rather than a sculpture?
Episode 17 - Whats So Neo about Neoclassicism? The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | The idea of looking towards Greek art for inspiration wasn't exactly new in the late 18th Century with artists such as Canova and David. Artists had been doing it constantly, and for centuries. And yet, the name we give the dominant style of that period - Neoclassicism - seems to imply there was. What was so 'Neo' about Neoclassicism? Listen to the podcast and join the Enlightened.
Episode 52 - Sabin Howard Interview The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Figurative sculptor Sabin Howard has just been selected to complete the sculptural components of the National World War One Memorial in Washington, DC. In this interview, Howard talks about how he arrived at the concepts behind the sculptures for the memorial (which will include a frieze in bronze over 80 feet long), and his approach towards his art.
Episode 38 - The Baptistery Competition The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Contests and competitions between artists have been around for as long as art has. But the most famous competition of all time was between sculptors - two giants of the early 15th Century - and heralded the start of the Florentine Reniassance. But who won? Ghiberti or Brunelleschi? Decide for yourself who is the better sculptor...
Episode 45 - From Terra Cruda to Terracotta The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | "I tried to fire my sculpture once, and it blew up in the kiln." -And thus endeth the exploration of terracotta sculpture for many a clay modeller. But it doesn't have to be that way! In this Shop Talk episode, Jason discusses tips and tricks, principles and practices of modelling figurative work for firing into terracotta.
Episode 41 - Orsanmichele The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Orsanmichele is the unique name of a unique church in Florence, a site many consider to be the most significant in Florence for early Renaissance sculpture. In this episode, we explore the changes in sculpture that took place when sculptors began working not for the glory of God, but for the glory of Guild...
Episode 40 - Heidi Wastweet The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | The Sculptor's Funeral interviews medallic artist Heidi Wastweet, a sculptor who has devoted her career to the art of relief sculpture, coins, and medals. Wastweet offers us all a fascinating glimpse into a branch of the sculpture arts that few of us explore.
Episode 53 - What is Plaster? The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Plaster - where would we sculptors be without it? As fundamental as this versatile material is to the basic processes of sculpture, how many of us know why plaster does what it does - or what it's even made of? This podcast sheds light on these and other mysteries, and includes an interview with unabashed plaster lover Alicia Ponzio.
Episode 44 - Luca Della Robbia The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | New kid on the Florentine block Luca Della Robbia didn't have to reinvent the wheel in sculpture, like the sculptors of the generation before him had to; instead, he started with those new wheels and invented the bicycle. Learning lessons from not just sculptors, but from painters and even potters, Luca developed a style, and a genre, all his own. And he did it with Dolcezza.
Episode 48 - THE David The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | ...You know which David. You know who created it. But do you know why it was created in the first place, or how it ended up becoming one of the most famous works of art on earth? And what's with the big head?? The Sculptor's Funeral Podcast digs into the David's origins to get a better understanding of Michelangelo's masterpiece, and debunks a few myths along the way.
Episode 39 - Lorenzo Ghiberti and the Gates of Paradise The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | "They are so beautiful that they would do well for the gates of Paradise." That's a pretty high compliment, just for a set of decorative bronze doors - but when we find that the doors took 27 years to make, and the compliment is from the mouth of Michelangelo, perhaps there's something to it...
Episode 31 - Rodin Part Two: Off the Pedestal The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | The Burghers of Calais, and the monument to Balzac - two highly controversial monuments commissioned from August Rodin at the height of his powers. Why were they controversial? What did they mean? And how did they forever change how we create and value public art? The exploration of Rodin's work and powerful legacy continues in the second of a two part podcast.
Episode 18 - Houdon The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Jean Antoine Houdon was the greatest portrait sculptor in European history. The fidelity to nature he maintained in his work was an inspiration for the Realists of the 19th century and each generation which came after - all the more amazing when we consider that Houdon was a product of the Rococo and the Old Regime!
Episode 22 - Rude Awakening The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Francois Rude is likely the most important sculptor you've never heard of... Known today as 'the father of naturalism is sculpture', during his own lifetime he was exiled, denied official recognition, and relegated to a corner of the Parisian sculptural scene - and despite everyone's best efforts, changed the course of art history anyway. Find out what debt we all owe to Francois Rude in this episode of The Sculptor's Funeral.
Episode 37 - Renaissance Sculptures False Start The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | The Sculptor's Funeral Podcast Returns for the Second Season! Episode 37 - Renaissance Sculpture's False Start: Ask an art historian for the date of sculpture's official kick-off in the Florentine Renaissance, they might tell you 1401. Or, they might tell you 1260. Both answers are correct. How can this be? It turns out that early advances in sculptural traditions away from the Gothic idiom had a good early start - which was then abruptly killed off, by a destructive force you'd want to avoid like the Plague...
Episode 43 - Donatello among the Medici The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Cosimo de' Medici - Cosimo Pater Patriae, Father of the Country -was one of the wealthiest, most powerful and most intelligent men in Europe, and had a cantankerous, stick-in-the-mud sculptor as a best friend. This episode explores what made the Medici the Medici, and how a collaboration between secular power and the Renaissance Avant-Garde led to Donatello's striking and controversial David.
Episode 20 - Canova The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | The Three Graces. Cupid and Psyche. Napoleon. Everyone knows Antonio Canova, and you either love him or hate him. But - love him or hate him - do you understand him? The Sculptor's Funeral explores Canova's work in the context of the Enlightenment and French Revolution, and finds there is more to Canova than just a sculptor of ideal nudes.
Episode 23 - Inside the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | What was life like for a sculpture student of the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts in the 19th century? What did it take to win the coveted Prix de Rome? Jason examines some firsthand accounts of students and critics of the Ecole, highlighting the similarities with - and differences from - contemporary art training in academies and ateliers.
Episode 30 - Rodin Part One - The Force of Nature The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | The Last of the Old Masters, or the first Modern Sculptor? Yes, indeed. Auguste Rodin retains more influence over figurative sculpture today than any other sculptor in history. This first of a two-part discussion on the life and Work of Rodin wonders if figurative sculpture today is under the spell of Rodin, the way the Mannerist Era sculptors were held captive by the mighty Michelangelo.
Episode 24 - Young Carpeaux The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | The crude and arrogant son of a mason, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux became the exuberant sculptural voice of the Second Empire and is the greatest sculptor of the period between Canova and Rodin. Funny how 20 years of art school can change a person... This episode charts the education of Carpeaux in all its twists and turns, revealing that the greatest influence on Carpeaux's work was his own stubborn ambition.
Episode 46 - Desiderio Da Settignano The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | In a career cut short by an early death, Desiderio Da Settignano nevertheless managed to rival Donatello in relief work, and re-invent the genre of child portraiture in sculpture, bringing the Age of Ugly Renaissance Babies to a thankful end.
Episode 35 - Sargeant Jagger The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | In this episode, we trace the short career of Sargeant Jagger - British figurative sculptor and decorated World War One Veteran - the artist who brought Realism to the genre of war memorials, and thereby changed the way nations remember their fallen.
Episode 25 - Carpeaux and the Second Empire The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | "Those who have seen it have not forgotten the magnificent tipsy laugh of the figures in the dancing group on the front of the Opera; you seem to hear it, as you pass, above the uproar of the street." Is this remark from Henry James praising Carpeaux's masterpiece The Dance, or damning it? Yes. But whether a person loved or hated the sensual rhythms of The Dance, it and its creator could not be ignored.
Episode 28 - Alfred Gilbert The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | One of the greatest English sculptors in history, Alfred Gilbert isn't a household name, but he should be. A champion of the Arts and Crafts Movement whose personal style strongly inflenced the look of Art Nouveau, Gilbert's work stands out for its originality in an Age of Originals that was the late 19th century sculptural scene.
Episode 21 - Isnt it Romantic? The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Frankenstein's Monster, scenes of disaster and shipwreck, Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Raven'... what could be more Romantic? in this episode, Jason explores the Romantic movement in art, a direct competitor to Neoclassicism, and answers your burning questions as to what flowers and chocolates on St. Valentine's Day have to do with 1st century Greek literature.
Episode 50 - Michelangelo and the Tomb of Pope Julius The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Just because you are the immortal genius Michelangelo doesn't mean you have it easy... This episode explored the trials and tribulations of the commission for the Tomb of Pope Julius II, the the lavishly extravagant commission of the century - that was never meant to be.
Episode 33 - Public Monuments 2.0 The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | What do NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden, The stock market, and Satan's minion Baphomet have in common? Well, besides the obvious, they have all been subjects of a new form of public monument that has arisen in recent decades- one whose creators know that sometimes, it's easier to be forgiven than to get permission.
Episode 29 - Charlie Langton, Equestrian Sculptor The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | An interview with one of the UK's leading equestrian sculptors. Langton is known for energetic portraits of thoroughbred champions, in works ranging from small trophies to monumental scale figures. We also have a conversation with sculptor Mark Jackson, who collaborated with Langton on the stunning Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces National Memorial in England.
Episode 47 -v Verrocchio The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | The greatest sculptor in Florence between the time of Donatello and the rise of Michelangelo, Andrea del Verrocchio explored figurative composition like no sculptor before him - but his greatest contribution to art might be in the painters he taught - from Ghirlandaio and Signorelli, to Leonadro da Vinci himself.
Jason Arkles Interview on The Story with Dick Gordon The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Interview with Jason Arkles on the WUNC Radio program The Story with Dick Gordon, years before he created The Sculptor's Funeral Podcast! Jason discusses his strange and unique path to becoming a sculptor.
Episode 19 - Michelangelo Bronzes?!? The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | News Flash! Art historians claim to have identified two bronze statuettes as by the hand of Michelangelo! in this current events episode, Jason attempts to examine the hard evidence for this claim, but discovers there isn't any...
Episode 51 - Michelangelo and the New Sacristy The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Michelangelo's path to immortality continues to twist and turn in this episode, detailing his time in Florence working on the New Sacristy, a commission for which he worked Day and Night, and from Dawn to Dusk...
Episode 26 - The 19th Century Sculptural Renaissance The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | A new Renaissance, a Golden Age - Whatever you call it, Paris in the second half of the 19th century saw a greater number of master sculptors doing work in more unprecedented ways than the world had seen since the early Florentine Renaissance. This episode takes a look as several sculptors and highlights their individual originalities as well as their relation to each other.
Episode 36 - Malvina Hoffman - Yesterday is Tomorrow The Sculptors Funeral Podcast 2021-01-30 | Malvina Hoffman straddles the line between old and new sculptural traditions - She studied under Rodin and became a champion of Modernism, but is most remembered for her naturalistic portraiture which documented native peoples from all over the planet. In this Season Finale of the Sculptor's Funeral, Jason explores Hoffman's magnificent and problematic Magnum Opus, the Hall of the Races of Mankind.
