statues

A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals or non-representational forms are carved in durable material (like wood, metal, or stone) and placed on a pedestal in a public place as public art to serve as an impressive and commanding material support for contemplation of persons, events, concepts or other realities of religious, historical, moral, or spiritual import.. Some statues gain fame independent of the person or concept they represent, as with the Statue of Liberty, which now represents the great era of immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when its appearance on the horizon to ships indicated that passengers had at last put the Old World behind them and would soon disembark in a land of unlimited opportunity. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture that represents persons or animals in full figure but that is small enough to lift and carry is a statuette or figurine, while one more than twice life-size is a colossal statue.Statues have been produced in many cultures from prehistory to the present; the oldest known statue dating to about 30,000 years ago. The world's tallest statue, Spring Temple Buddha, is 128 metres (420 ft), and is located in Lushan County, Henan, China.

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