Woven Experiment No.63 - Double alternating Clove Hitch

Woven Experiment No.63 - Double alternating Clove Hitch in wax thread using 6mm wax as an anchor cord.
The results are very neat, but how they might apply to a more 3d shape I’m not sure. Onwards with more experiments. #wax #macrame #art

‘Christ Before Pilate’ by Giovanni Bologna c.1579/80

‘Christ Before Pilate’ by Giovanni Bologna, known as Giambologna c.1579/80

Also presented in the V & A were a collection of wax reliefs depicting religious scenes, the wax would have been applied to wooden boards and sculpted, in some places you can see small patches of the wood grain showing through. 

The scenes are incredible with so much life to them, even in the smallest corner there is secondary stories playing out, such as the small child and the dog which features in the second relief 'Pilate Washes His Hands As Jesus Is Led Away’.

The label reads “Giambolona distorted the modelling of the figures to compensate for the placement of the finished bronze reliefs. These also survive, and were probably set just above eye level. Gambolling later reproduced the reliefs for his own funerary chapel in Florence.”

 It’s amazing that wax pieces such as these still survive, researching wax sculptures has been a difficult topic as very little survives or the wax is destroyed in the casting process. The V & A have a small but comprehensive collection of waxes and is worth looking for. I would note that in summer months not all off the wax pieces may be on display due to the heat. Luckily I visited on a cold January day.

‘Rape of the Sabines’ by Giovanni Bologna c.1579

Sketch model for the ‘Rape of the Sabines’ by Giovanni Bologna c.1579

Shown in the V & A museum, the attention to detail on this 500 years old wax model was amazingly intricate. 

The tag for the model reads “ Working on marble on a grand scale was technically difficult. Spurred on by Michelangelo’s unfulfilled plans to produce a three-figure marble group, Giambologna rose to the challenge. These two wax models, with their complex arrangement of interlocking figures, represent the first stages in his design. The resulting sculpture was given it’s title only after Francesco de'Medici put it on public display in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence.”

Group of a warrior and an amazon in combat by Lucas, Richard Cockle →

This is a wax model in high relief made by Richard Cockle Lucas in the 19th century in England. The model represents a warrior and an amazon in combat. It is a copy from a piece of ancient bronze armour found near Heraclea, now in the British Museum.

Richard Cockle Lucas (1800-1883) is mainly known as a sculptor in wax and ivory, but he also worked in glass, marble and bronze, as well as being a painter. Lucas began his career as a sculptor as an apprentice to his uncle, who worked as a cutler in Winchester, carving knife handles. He joined the Royal Academy Schools in 1828 and studied under Richard Westmacott. Lucas made two models of the Parthenon, in its original state and after the explosion of 1687, which were acquired by the British Museum. He is best known for his small scale works including wax sculptures and ivory carvings. Lucas was at the centre of a controversy about the bust of Flora in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin. The bust was thought to be an authentic work by Leonardo da Vinci but the sculptor’s son Albert Dürer Lucas claimed in the Burlington Magazine that the bust was modelled by his father. It is now generally thought that the bust is probably by Leonardo or his circle but was repaired by Lucas. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1829 and 1859 and showed ivory carvings and imitation bronzes at the Great Exhibition in 1851.

Taken from The V&A online collection

Research into ancient casting techniques

Research taken from Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art

“The ancient Greeks and Romans had a long history of making statuary in bronze. Literally thousands of images of gods and heroes, victorious athletes, statesmen, and philosophers filled temples and sanctuaries, and stood in the public areas of major cities. Over the course of more than a thousand years, Greek and Roman artists created hundreds of statue types whose influence on large-scale statuary from western Europe (and beyond) continues to the present day.
The earliest large-scale Greek bronze statues had very simple forms dictated by their technique of manufacture, known as sphyrelaton (literally, "hammer-driven”), in which parts of the statue are made separately of hammered sheets of metal and attached one to another with rivets. Frequently, these metal sheets were embellished by hammering the bronze over wooden forms in order to produce reliefs, or by incising designs using a technique called tracing.

By the late Archaic period (ca. 500–480 B.C.), sphyrelaton went out of use as a primary method when lost-wax casting became the major technique for producing bronze statuary. The lost-wax casting of bronze is achieved in three different ways: solid lost-wax casting, hollow lost-wax casting by the direct process, and hollow lost-wax casting by the indirect process. The first method, which is also the earliest and simplest process, calls for a model fashioned in solid wax. This model is surrounded with clay and then heated in order to remove the wax and harden the clay. Next, the mold is inverted and molten metal poured into it. When the metal cools, the bronze-smith breaks open the clay model to reveal a solid bronze reproduction.

Since the physical properties of bronze do not allow large solid casting, the use of solid wax models limited the founder to casting very small figures. To deal with this problem, the ancient Greeks adopted the process of hollow lost-wax casting to make large, freestanding bronze statues. Typically, large-scale sculpture was cast in several pieces, such as the head, torso, arms, and legs. In the direct process of hollow wax casting, the sculptor first builds up a clay core of the approximate size and shape of the intended statue. With large statues, an armature normally made of iron rods is used to help stabilize this core. The clay core is then coated with wax, and vents are added to facilitate the flow of molten metal and allow gases to escape, which ensures a uniform casting. Next the model is completely covered in a coarse outer layer of clay and then heated to remove all the wax, thereby creating a hollow matrix. The mold is reheated for a second, longer, period of time in order to harden the clay and burn out any wax residue. Once this is accomplished, the bronze-smith pours the molten metal into the mold until the entire matrix has been filled. When the bronze has cooled sufficiently, the mold is broken open and the bronze is ready for the finishing process.“

(see this article in full at MetMuseum )