Following up on the Elgin Marbles debate, Jason explores the nature of public art, and whether or if a work of art can cease to be. How fragmented, altered, abused, displaced, and appropriated can a sculpture be before it is a relic, rather than a sculpture?

Taking a break over the holidays, Jason gives a reading of Oscar Wilde's classic short story. Happy Holidays Everyone!

News and Notes! Current events covered in this episode include the lastest chapter in the 2 century old controversy surrounding the elgin marbles, a group of statuary taken from the Parthenon in Greece and brought to England. Also, information on TRAC, or The Representaional Art Conference, taking place in 2015.

Whether it's at a university degree program or in a small private atelier, most figurative sculptors today train at schools, rather than as apprentices to professional sculptors. But what was the first art school in Europe? why was it created? Your host Jason Arkles details the history of the rise of the academy as a way to train artists in a more varied, eclectic, and intellectually challenging program than traditional apprenticeships allowed.

Giambologna's remarkable and prolific career is the missing link between the Renaissance and the Baroque, between Michelangelo and Bernini, and between medieval and modern conceptions of how a sculptor's career is conducted. So many elements which Giambologna pioneered in his work - casting works in editions, jobbing out technical aspects of sculpture to specialists, and the decorative, small scale female nude for popular consumption - are still with us today.

The sculptor of the famous Perseus and Medusa, Benvenuto Cellini, might have been a one-hit wonder if it were not for his other masterpiece, his Autobiography - the first from an artist. In his book, Cellini details the construction and casting of his Perseus - a precious firsthand account of a Renaissance sculptor at work - as well as his exploits as a nasty, brutish, jealous, pandering thug who murdered and raped his way through life. Your shameless host Jason Arkles brings the Autobiography to life in a dramatic reading, complete with cheap sound effects and silly voices.

In this Episode, Jason provides a forum for current events in the world of figurative sculpture. Notable exhibitions in museums around the world, exhibition opportunities for sculptors, and listener mail.

The Divine Michelangelo - The man could do no wrong. ...At least, according to Michelangelo. One of his lasting legacies, apart from his art, is the mythology about his life and work that he himself perpetuated through the commissioning of a biography. But legends aside, Michelangelo still is one of the gresatest artists ever to have lived. This episode discusses his early years as an artist, his training and his influences, his early successes and even his (gasp!) mistakes. he was only human, after all (despite rumors to the contrary).

The history of canons of proportions and their use by sculptors is discussed in this week's episode. From the Egyptians up to the present day, artists have sought the key to caputring an ideal, or a norm, in human form. As it happens, notions of ideals - and of what we consider normal - change over time, which has given rise to dozens of canons practiced by different artists at different times. Host Jason Arkles discusses several, and how artists have always sought to tie the measurements of the human form to other notions of perfection- be it the sacred, or geometry - or even sacred geometry.

If you sculpt, you probably have a small library of how-to sculpture manuals. Sculptors writing about sculpture goes way back - but how far back? In this episode, Host Jason Arkles discusses the f sculpture manual that was written during the early renaissance by the original Renaissance Man, Leon Battista Alberti. A personal friend of Donatello, Brunelleschi, and Ghiberti, Alberti's treatise on the science and practice of sculpture during the early Renaissance show us just how much in common we have with the past masters- and how much we might be able to learn from them.

Have you heard the old studio saying that clay gets better the more you use it? how and why does that work? In this shop talk eposide, Jason discusses more than you ever wanted to know about clay - its composition, its properties, and how we can alter our own clay to get it to do what we want. be sure to check out the episode's image gallery over at www.thesculptorsfuneral.com, were there are plenty of images and even a few videos detailing how to recycle your clay and change its workability for the better.

In this episode, The life and work of Donatello are discussed, in relation to his influence for all European sculpture which followed. Host Jason Arkles makes a case for Donatello as being the single most influential sculptor in the last 700 years.

Jason introduces himself, explains what this podcast is all about, and why he calls it The Sculptor's Funeral; and then, discusses the near-death experience of figurative sculpture during the 20th century.