Ship model/sculpture

Maybe this interesting question comes down to the old, eternal one: is or is not model building an art form? That one's been hashed out in many forums over the years. My own opinion is that it's a question of degree, rather than a clear line between one form and another.

I'm reminded of the 19th-century marine artist Antonio Jacobsen. His oil paintings of ships are wonderful primary sources and great decorations. He had an extremely formulaic style, and cranked out those paintings at an average rate of one every day and a half for something over twenty years. To say that Jacobsen was an "artist" because he did oil paintings of ships, and that Harold Hahn, August Crabtree, C. Nepean Longridge, Donald McNarry, and Norman Ough were not "artists" because they built models of ships, strikes me as logically inconsistent.

My own view, for what little it's worth, is that (1) some ship models, some paintings, and some sculpture deserve to be labeled "art"; (2) some ship models, some paintings, and some sculpture don't; and (3) the distinction needs to be made by the individual observer on the basis of individual judgment and taste.

Depends...most modelers are kit assemblers...a few scratchbuild additional parts, etc...and even fewer start with nothing more than a set of plans...

Jeff

Actually, that section would make a great hotel. :)

When you look at what he created, I think it may be no deeper than 6", or a fairly flat relief. You can see the "forced perspective" in the image where he is standing next to the piece.

I would venture to say, that a model maker creates a miniature of an actual object to given degree of accuracy. A "miniaturist" makes a duplicate object to every last detail.
A sculptor creates an "interpretation" of an object.
The model maker would fall somewher between a "sculptor" and a "miniaturist".