Throughout most of history, the purpose of creating sculpture has been to produce works of art that are as permanent as is possible.
So to that end, works were usually produced in durable and frequently, expensive materials, primarily brass, bronze and stone such as marble,
limestone, porphyry, and granite. More rarely, precious materials such as gold, silver, jade, and ivory were used for chryselephantine works.
More common and less expensive materials were used for sculpture for wider consumption, including woods such as oak, boxwood (Buxus) and cast metals
such as pewter and zinc (spelter).
Sculptors are constantly searching for new ways to make art and for new materials to use. Andy Gold worthy is notable as a sculptor for his use of
almost entirely natural materials in natural settings and for creating sculptures much more ephemeral than is typical. Jim Gary used automobile parts,
tools, machine parts, and hardware in his sculptures as well as stained glass. Pablo Picasso used bicycle parts for one of his most famous sculptures.
Many different forms of sculpture were used in the many different regions of Asia, often based around the religions of Hinduism and
Buddhism. In Thailand,
sculpture was almost exclusively of Buddha images. Many Thai sculptures or temples are gilded, and on occasion enriched with inlays.
The first sculptures in India date back to the lovely Indus Valley civilization (3300 to 1700 B.C.) which can now be found in Mahenzodaro and Harappa in
the country of Pakistan. These are among the earliest instances of sculpture in the world. Later, as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism developed further,
India produced brass, bronze and stone carvings of great intricacy, such as the famous temple carvings which adorn various Hindu, Jain and Buddhist
shrines. Some of these, such as the cave temples of Ellora and Ajanta, were carved out of solid rock, making them perhaps the largest and most ambitious
sculptural schemes in the world. In order correctly to define art, it is necessary, first of all, to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure and to
consider it as one of the conditions of human life. Viewing it in this way we cannot fail to observe that art is one of the means of intercourse
between man and man. Speech, transmitting the thoughts and experiences of men, serves as a means of union among them, and art acts in a similar manner.
The peculiarity of this latter means of intercourse, distinguishing it from intercourse by means of words, consists in this, that whereas by words a
man transmits his thoughts to another, by means of art he transmits his feelings. The activity of art is based on the fact that a man, receiving through
another man's expression of feeling, is capable of experiencing the emotion which moved the man who expressed it. It is upon this capacity of man to
receive another man's expression of feeling and experience those feelings himself, that the activity of art is based.
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