Claim: Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was an artist.

Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions . It is one of the plastic arts . Durable sculptural processes originally used carving -LRB- the removal of material -RRB- and modelling -LRB- the addition of material , as clay -RRB- , in stone , metal , ceramics , wood and other materials but , since Modernism , there has been an almost complete freedom of materials and process . A wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving , assembled by welding or modelling , or molded , or cast .   Sculpture in stone survives far better than works of art in perishable materials , and often represents the majority of the surviving works -LRB- other than pottery -RRB- from ancient cultures , though conversely traditions of sculpture in wood may have vanished almost entirely . However , most ancient sculpture was brightly painted , and this has been lost .   Sculpture has been central in religious devotion in many cultures , and until recent centuries large sculptures , too expensive for private individuals to create , were usually an expression of religion or politics . Those cultures whose sculptures have survived in quantities include the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean , India and China , as well as many in South America and Africa .   The Western tradition of sculpture began in ancient Greece , and Greece is widely seen as producing great masterpieces in the classical period . During the Middle Ages , Gothic sculpture represented the agonies and passions of the Christian faith . The revival of classical models in the Renaissance produced famous sculptures such as Michelangelo 's David . Modernist sculpture moved away from traditional processes and the emphasis on the depiction of the human body , with the making of constructed sculpture , and the presentation of found objects as finished art works .