Frontal sculpture

A frontal sculpture is a sculpture that is designed to have a main viewing side. This is especially true for figures standing in front of a wall or in a niche .

Use in art history

The sculpture of antiquity is still strictly adhered to the thought pattern of the relief and explicit depictions of the back of the person are rare (e.g. in the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius ). The Middle Ages also placed both statues and statuettes face-to-face, on the facade , portal or on the altar . This relates to stone, which is generally only roughly worked out when viewed from the back, cast, as well as wood - there is a hollow in the back to reduce the cracking of the wood .

It was not until the Renaissance that sculptures were once again set up with all-round visibility. A prominent example is the David of Michelangelo Buonarroti . The scandal when it was erected in 1504 on the square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio related less to the visible genitals, which the thoroughly cosmopolitan Renaissance would have accepted, but to the unobstructed view of his buttocks. This development goes in parallel with the representation of painting, which can be expanded through the perfected shortening of the frontal view of portrait painting to much more dynamic representations. Already in the Renaissance, but at the latest in the Baroque , the depiction of figures with a strong twist and a view of human backs was incorporated into the formal language - here too, Michelangelo is to be mentioned as a pioneer (this includes, for example, his views in the Sistine Chapel ).

Despite this development, frontal sculpture remained common until the 19th century, if only for rational reasons. Only the modern age and its expanded spatial concept, in particular the sculpture by Auguste Rodin , but also the development towards the abstract , which no longer seeks an excellent front, finally push the frontal sculptures back into the arts and crafts.