The history of sculpture is a part of the history of art that studies the evolution of sculpture, from its beginnings, taking into account the different cultures of the world and the historical periods that usually coincide with those of the history of art itself. Over time, many of its shapes and tools used remain the same or similar
Medieval and Renaissance sculptors worked in collaboration with other artisans and used to have large workshops, in these places many assistants and officers could work, and the master sculptor was in charge of the completion of the works. On the other hand, behind art there have been great patrons, the patronage of whom, in some cases, lasted throughout their lives. More recently, from the 19th century onwards, sculptors normally rely on public and private art galleries where their works are exhibited for sale, as commissions for civil projects are relatively rare.
The representation of the human figure has been one of the main themes until the 20th century. With the appearance of new artificial materials and mechanized tools, as well as with the development of the media, the evolution of styles accelerated and, therefore, it diversified. The beginnings of experimental art that led to abstraction became a dominant sculptural practice for at least fifty years, after the figurative tradition prevailed for centuries. The sculptural tradition was questioned both in the commercial context and in industrial design, the change that it caused both at a social level and at a political and philosophical level in the period between the two world wars allowed abstract art, from 1945, He will concentrate on the expression of the physical qualities of the materials and on the search for visual sensation.
The first treatises on sculpture techniques belong to Greek artists and date from the 5th century BC. C .. The best known is the Canon de Policleto, a work in which the sculptor exposes the innovations that he himself carried out, such as the position of the contrapposto. According to Pliny the Elder, his indications were adopted as laws by other artists. Albrecht Dürer, during the last years of his life, devoted himself to compiling theoretical studies that he had done on the human canon to the Treatise on the proportions of the body, published posthumously in 1528. Leon Battista Alberti, who was constantly interested in the search for rules — both theoretical and practical — capable of guiding the work of artists, he calls some canons in his works, such as, for example, in De statua, in which he exposes the proportions of the human body.
The Naturalis Historia of Plinio the Elder, the Mirabila de Pasiteles, dated from the 1st century BC. C., and other works contributed to spread the historical-critical theories of the Greek philosophers who in the Hellenistic period established that the sculptor Fidias represented the "peak of his artistic past." Roman thinkers such as Cicero and Quintilian made critical observations of interest about sculpture and painting, but as a whole, the contribution of ancient Rome in the historiography of art lies in the description of works and the transmission of news and knowledge according to the lost Greek precedents. During the late Middle Ages, artists began to sign works and some of them even adopted the idea of adding self-portraits to their works, such as the sculptor Arnau Cadell at the Sant Cugat monastery (c. 1190); Due to the lack of contracts, these signatures are one of the most important data that the historiography of Romanesque sculpture has.
During the Florentine Quattrocento a theory and a historiography were formulated according to the new artistic practice and mentality. The genre of "artist biographies", forgotten since classical antiquity - since this genre was initiated in the fourth century BC. C. by Duris de Samos— it was cultivated again: Cennino Cennini with his Libro dell'Arte and Lorenzo Ghiberti's Comments are the most eloquent testimony of the profound renovation that the Renaissance brought in the field of artistic literature. However, the works of Donatello, Andrea del Verrocchio and Jacopo della Quercia demarcate the ague of this artistic panorama. At this time is when the liberation of the sculpture from the architectural frame was practically given, the reliefs were made with the rules of perspective and the characters were shown with expressions of drama that led to the sensation of great terribilità in the feelings exposed in the sculptures. During the Cinquecento, Leonardo da Vinci, Rafael Sanzio and Michelangelo himself continued this theoretical tradition with their writings and treatises; this period was characterized by a partial taste for monumental grandeur and a more "mannerist" influence. Le Vite (1550) by Giorgio Vasari constitutes a fundamental work that exerted an enormous influence on all the historiography of art that subsequently developed.