argument56 [AWB小组]第5次作业

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56.Collectors prize the ancient life-size clay statues of human figures made on Kali Island but have long wondered how the Kalinese artists were able to depict bodies with such realistic precision. Since archeologists have recently discovered molds of human heads and hands on Kali, we can now conclude that the ancient Kalinese artists used molds of actual bodies, not sculpting tools and techniques, to create these statues. This discovery explains why Kalinese miniature statues were abstract and entirely different in style: molds could only be used for life-size sculptures. It also explains why few ancient Kalinese sculpting tools have been found. In light of this development, collectors should expect the life-size sculptures to decrease in value and the miniatures to increase in value.


The arguer unreasonably renders high expectation on the value of miniatures, and ignores the potential life-size sculptures, on the basis of a recently discovery of molds, and the miniature statues’ abstract and differential style, and then his personal conjecture. However, a further exploration will reveal how groundless the argument is.

The threshold problem of this argument is the author’s presumption that the ancient Klinese artists used molds of actual bodies, not sculpting tools and techniques, simply for the fact that molds of human heads and hands were found on Kali. However, the arguer provides no evidence to support it is the case, nor does he establish a causal relationship between the molds of human heads and hands and the statues. Thus, it is highly possible that the molds of human heads and hands were not used into sculptures and instead used as decoration or something else; given that the heads and hands were utilized, we are not furnished the source of other part of the statues’ body, such as the legs or the abdomen which were designed throughly by the creaters’ imagination. Therefore, we cannot say the ancient Kalinese artists useed molds of actual bodies.

Secondly, the arguer excludes the use of sculpting tools and technique without warranty whose deduction derives from that few ancient Kalinese sculpting tools have been found. Perhaps these tools were undiscovered because of the long expansion of time and erosion force of nature, such as conflagration or flood. Still perhaps the archeologists have not yet discovered the tools for their deep burying or isolated places. Maybe oneday the sculpting tools are largely found in certain place, then the author has to recognize his gratutious conclusion.

Granted that life-size sculpture are created on molds rather than tools, we still cannot assume that molds could only be used for these sculptures and thus the miniature statues were abstract and entirely different in style. It is highly possible that the miniature are also created on the ground of molds, and then added with artists’ creation, embodied the notion of himself, which caused the abstract and different style.

Even assuming that the author’s deduction that Klinese miniature staures did use the molds as their bedrock and miniatures did not, his further conclusion about collectors’ deserved expectation is more ridiculous. The value of the works are based on the level of craftwork, the collectors’ interests, the value of the precessing material. If the life-size sculputures are too identical to real body, or the collectors are the virtual fans of these kind of creation, or the clay used are very precise, the argument will be reversed.

To sum up, the author cannot verify his conclusion on the ground of scant evidence concerning the relationship among the molds of heads and hands, life-size sculpture, and miniature statues. Besides, the price of these two sorts of creation should be rendered more consideration about the value in themselves and the requirement of market.