Abust is asculpted or cast representation of the upper part of thehuman body, depicting aperson'shead andneck, and a variable portion of thechest andshoulders. The piece is normally supported by aplinth. The bust is generally a portrait intended to record the appearance of an individual, but may sometimes represent a type. They may be of anymedium used for sculpture, such asmarble,bronze,terracotta,plaster, wax or wood.
As a format that allows the most distinctive characteristics of an individual to be depicted with much less work, and therefore expense, and occupying far less space than a full-lengthstatue, the bust has been since ancient times a popular style of life-size portrait sculpture.
A sculpture that only includes the head, perhaps with the neck, is more strictly called a "head", but this distinction is not always observed. Display often involves an integral or separatedisplay stand. TheAdiyogi Shiva statue located in India representative of Hindu God Shiva is the world's largest bust sculpture and is 112 feet (34 m) tall.
Sculptural portrait heads fromclassical antiquity, stopping at the neck, are sometimes displayed as busts. However, these are often fragments from full-body statues, or were created to be inserted into an existing body, a common Roman practice;[1] these portrait heads are not included in this article. Equally, sculpted heads stopping at the neck are sometimes mistakenly called busts.
The portrait bust was aHellenistic Greek invention (although the Egyptian bust presented below precedes Hellenic productions by five centuries), though very few original Greek examples survive, as opposed to many Roman copies of them. There are four Roman copies as busts ofPericles with the Corinthian helmet, but the Greek original was a full-length bronze statue. They were very popular inRoman portraiture.[2]
The Roman tradition may have originated in the tradition ofRoman patrician families keeping wax masks, perhapsdeath masks, of dead members, in theatrium of the family house. When another family member died, these were worn by people chosen for the appropriate build in procession at the funeral, in front of the propped-up body of the deceased, as an "astonished"Polybius reported, from his long stay in Rome beginning in 167 BC.[3] Later these seem to have been replaced or supplemented by sculptures. Possession of suchimagines maiorum ("portraits of the ancestors") was a requirement for belonging to theEquestrian order.[4]
Busts began to be revived in a variety of materials, including paintedterracotta or wood, and marble. Initially most were flat-bottomed, stopping slightly below the shoulders.Francesco Laurana, born inDalmatia, but who worked in Italy and France, specialized in marble busts, mostly of women.
Under theBaroque school the round-bottomed Roman style, including, or designed to be placed on, asocle (a shortplinth or pedestal), became most common.Gian Lorenzo Bernini, based in Rome, did portrait busts of popes, cardinals, and foreign monarchs such asLouis XIV. HisBust of King Charles I of England (1638) is now lost; artist and subject never met, and Bernini worked from thetriple portrait painted by Van Dyck, which was sent to Rome. Nearly 30 years later, hisBust of the young Louis XIV was hugely influential on French sculptors. Bernini's rivalAlessandro Algardi was another leading sculptor in Rome.[5]
