Question

Peace be upon you
 
Both a jug and a statue are a chemical compound, a cluster of molecules.
 
I can make both a jug and a statue, for that matter, out of wood/stone/clay/metal/plastic and any other material.
 
Everyone would agree that a jug, or a chair or a table with legs, is not a statue.
 
So what exactly is a statue?
 
Again and again we hear that if someone made a statue in the form of a human or an animal but left out an essential part, such as the shape of one ear or the shape of one hand, etc., then it is already "not a statue"—but is that really true? In my opinion it is not, because after all one can create a statue of a chimera, like the sphinx, which is an imaginary hybrid between a human and an animal, and it too lacks something that humans lack but also lacks something that an animal lacks, because as stated it is an imaginary hybrid between them. But any reasonable person would agree that this is a statue in every respect, even though it is not exactly a statue of a human, but also not exactly a statue of an animal.
 
So what is a statue, really?
 
What turns a certain chemical compound into a statue?
 
Thanks,
Ben