Sincerity

The art of sculpting is one the most ancient and most difficult to take from the stone what the master had in mind. This careful and sophisticated work began on paper and then sculpted out of stone to get the work done. 

Sculptors managed to make art out of stone, who might think that a stone could be beautiful, just remember La Pieta, David, Lacoonte, etc. There are many wonderful pieces of art that shows us the power of human creativity, ability and the beauty of nature as its canvas. 

To sculpt requires patience to get the job done blow after blow, strength to hit the rock and mould it to our desires and softness to give the final touches. It is the combination of hard work and detail that not everyone can achieve the final result. Once is done, we call it a piece of art, but why piece? 

Well, a sculpture is not the ensemble of different pieces, like a puzzle, but the work of a single stone to get beauty out of it, that is why we appreciate more the work done in a single piece than the ensemble of many. The difficulty of sculpting lies in the perfection of each blow and the delicacy in the detail without flaws. 

When the artists had a mistake by too much strength in a blow they would repair it using wax to cover the mistake, which meant that the sculpture wasn’t perfect and it decreased its value. The perfect sculpture was the one made in one piece and without wax, sincere. 

The origin of the word means “without wax” from the Latin word sin cera and it meant that the work of art was perfect. That it has no cover-ups nor does it pretend to deceive the eye of the beholder with what is not. Are we sincere?