This volume originates from an international conference (Oxford University 2007). Texts
address plaster casts and related themes from antiquity to the present day and from Egypt to
America Mexico and New Zealand. They are of interest to classical archaeologists art
historians the history of collecting curators conservators collectors and artists. Articles
explore the functions status and reception of plaster casts in artists' workshops and in
private and public collections as well as hands-on issues such as the making trading
display and conservation of plaster casts. Case-studies on artists' use of material and
technique include ancient Roman copyists Renaissance sculptors and painters Dutch
17th-century workshops Canova Boccioni and others. A second theme is the role of plaster
casts in the history of collecting from the Renaissance to the present day.Several papers
address the dissemination of visual ideas models and ideals through the medium. Papers on
modern and contemporary art illuminate the changing uses and semantic values of plaster casts
in this period. Amongst the types of casts discussed are artists' models and final works as
well as casts after antiquities including sculpture architecture and gems (dactyliothecae).
The volume demonstrates the richness of the field both in terms of the material itself and
modern scholarship concerned with it. Conceived as a handbook for students academics curators
and collectors the text will form a standard work on the role of plaster casts in the history
of Western sculpture.
