Practice question · Multiple choice
A marble figure holds an arm out into empty space. Why does the sculptor usually leave a strut of stone somewhere?
Hints
- Compare what stone and bronze can do in tension.
- A projecting limb puts the material into tension at its root.
Show the answer
D. Marble is weak in tension, so an unsupported projecting limb would break under its own weight
Why
Because marble is weak in tension. A projecting limb is loaded in bending at its root, and stone fails there; the strut carries that load. Bronze needs no such thing, which is why an outstretched arm with nothing beneath it is usually a reliable sign that you are looking at a cast rather than a carving.
Practise Sculpture: Taking Away and Building Up
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Art History I is free to start.
More questions on Sculpture: Taking Away and Building Up
- Which are true of the indirect lost-wax method?
- Complete the account of sculptural process.
- A clay model is usually the final object in modelled sculpture.
- How many main steps does the lost-wax process take, as set out in this lesson?
- Sort each work characteristic by the material it points to.
- Arrange the stages of the lost-wax process in order.
- Subtractive carving is described as irreversible, whereas additive modelling is fully reversible. What does…
- Arrange these decisions in the order a sculptor faces them.