Plaster cast

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the use of plaster casts in medicine, see Orthopedic cast.
Plaster cast bust of George Washington by Jean-Antoine Houdon based on a life mask cast in 1786.

A plaster cast is a copy made in

palaeontology (a track of dinosaur footprints made in this way can be seen outside the Oxford University Museum of Natural History
).

Sometimes a blank block of plaster itself was carved to produce mock-ups or first drafts of sculptures (usually relief sculptures) that would ultimately be sculpted in stone, by measuring exactly from the cast, for example by using a pointing machine. These are still described as plaster casts. Examples of these by John Flaxman may be found in the central rotunda of the library at University College London, and elsewhere in the university's collections. It may also describe a finished original sculpture made out of plaster, though these are rarer.

Method

Face casting process, with plastered bandage

Plaster is applied to the original to create a mould or cast (that is, a negative impression) of the original. This mould is then removed and fresh plaster is poured into it, creating a copy in plaster of the original. Usually very elaborate moulds were made out of several to even dozens of pieces, to cast the more difficult undercut sculptures. Plaster is not flexible, therefore the moulds were made as 3D jigsaw puzzles for easy removal of the original and the cast from the mould. Later gelatine, rubber and silicone moulds were used, backed by plaster or polyester for support.

History

Early

The practice of reproducing famous sculptures in plaster originally dates back to the sixteenth century when Leone Leoni assembled a collection of casts in Milan. He collected "as many of the most celebrated works… carved and cast, antique and modern as he was able to obtain anywhere". Such private collections, however, remained modest and uncommon until the 18th century.

Classical sculpture

Use of such casts was particularly prevalent among

the Louvre in return for a cast of the Louvre's Code of Hammurabi
).

Other ancient cultures

The West Court of the Cast Courts of the Victoria and Albert Museum

The technique was also applied later that century to

reliefs from Ancient Egypt and friezes from Mesopotamia (examples of both of which may be seen on the North-East Staircase and in Room 52 of the British Museum), as well as to medieval and Renaissance sculptures (as may be seen in the Cast Courts at the Victoria and Albert Museum
, which were a product of growing interest in medieval art at that time and the resulting desire to have a "reference collection" of such art). In the early 19th century, for example, perhaps as an expression of national pride, casts were made of outstanding national monuments particularly in France and Germany.

Cast collections

As well as those locations mentioned above, classical cast collections may be seen at the

Bellarmine Museum of Art at Fairfield University
. The British Museum also holds classical casts, but these are currently all in storage.

The French term for a collection or gallery of casts is a gypsotheque, as at the Louvre.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plaster_cast&oldid=1214311945"