Sculpture

Sculpture is concerned by an array of philosophical issues encompassing the challenge of three-dimensionality, the essence of physicality, as well as time- and ethics- related aspects. On claiming that "everyone must sculpt the statue of his or her self", Plato expressed his metaphysical conception of sculpture (Cf. the Republic, and the Meno). Considered as a copy of the self, the anthropomorphic statue of the hellenic world stood for an immortalized and timeless embodiment of the soul. As in all antique civilizations concerned with war damages, architecture and painting were seen as prone to disappear more easily than sculpure. But during Renaissance Art, a man-centred vision of harmony gave prominence over the absolutism of symmetry Russo et al 2003. Such views differ from the modern aesthetics influenced by  Heidegger Lorentzen 2019. A more comprehensive and contemporary approach to the philosophy of sculpture will provide new insights on the reception of non-Western aesthetics, including the Yoruba or Indian aesthetics that have developed parallel but different conceptions of the sculptural art Mitchell 2010.