THE ARTS

4092 Sculpture

Michaelangelo Bunarotti produced some marvelous statues – most notably his ‘Pieta’. But I liked best of all his unfinished statues, which showed the power of his underlying designs. But I like Donatello at least as much, especially his much less extravagant, bronze, ‘David’. The gold saltcellar by Benvenuto Cellini was marvelous. So are the more conventional sculptures of Bernini and his ‘Fountain of Four Rivers’ in the Piazza Navona in Rome.

I have only seen Canova’s ‘Three Graces’ but this work is impressive.

One of my favourite sculptors was Rodin. My mother loved his ‘Kiss’, as I did too. But above all I love his later, more impressionistic, sculptures such as ‘The Burghers of Calais’ and especially his ‘Balzac’. My mother liked Epstein’s heads, especially the one in the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight. I am not so enthusiastic, except for his very expressionist ‘Rock Drill’.

I respect the achievements of Graham Sutherland, but I find them inhuman. On the other hand, my top favourite is Barbara Hepworth; whose work was largely abstract. Her monumental pieces are as impressive as Sutherlands, but it is her polished bronze and (unusually for a sculptor) wood pieces that I love best.

I like Giacometti’s work, with his typical matchstick figures, but they are not really masterpieces. Equally, I like Elizabeth Frink’s wide ranging work.

More recently I like Alexander Calder’s mobiles. Above all, though, I love the wide ranging work of Anthony Gormley from (especially) the thousands of small figures in ‘Field for the British Isles’ to his massive ‘Angel of the North’ – though the latter is not his best work.  

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