What do you call the sculpted part of a statue or any sculpted object? I am wondering if there's a word for the sculpted part of an object. The unsculpted part being flat, and the sculpted part having many intricate bulges.
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1In one sense, there's no such thing as an unsculpted part of a statue. To sculpt something is to carve a three-dimensional piece of art. When you have finished carving it, it becomes a sculpture. In other words, the statue as a whole is sculpted, not just pieces of it. But if you're saying that only those pieces that have been carved are sculpted, and those pieces that haven't been carved are unsculpted, then you've already defined the sense of the word being used in the question itself. Sculpted: "having many intricate bulges." If that's not what you mean, provide clarification.– Jason BassfordAug 14, 2020 at 4:51
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If you're trying to distinguish the "sculpted part" from the flat part that the statue sits on, then the bottom part is called "the base" and the rest is simply "the statue."– Canadian YankeeAug 14, 2020 at 12:41
1 Answer
As Jason Bassford wrote, we think of the whole statue as being "sculpted". The only exception is if there's a block of original rock that literally has not been touched by the sculptor.
For what you describe, flat areas vs. non-flat areas, there are a few terms I can think of:
- Fine definition/work vs. coarse definition/work
- Detail vs. fill
- Complex shapes vs. simple shapes
- Shaped vs. smooth
That said, it may well be that sculptors have technical terms for this distinction.