Modeling, carving, casting, assembling
Different Approaches to Sculpture
"A brief introduction to sculpture and installation art. This video discusses the unique qualities of three-dimensional media and defines four different approaches to sculpture: carving, modeling, assembling, and casting. This video also explores the exciting possibilities of installation art, a media that emphasizes the viewer's experience." Davidson Art Online
The MET, The Making of a Bronze Statue, 1922
"How do you make a monument? Produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1922, this short film follows the American artist Alexander Phimister Proctor’s process of sculpting Theodore Roosevelt, from creating a small clay sketch and a plaster model through casting the final form in bronze using the famous lost-wax method. The work was unveiled in Portland, Oregon, where it remained until it was toppled by demonstrators on Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage in October 2020. As the role of monuments and public memory remain central to conversations about national character, a wide variety of contemporary artists have started to investigate the complicated histories of celebrated figures and to ask how and why we uphold certain narratives over others." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023, https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/videos/2023/1/from-the-vaults-making-bronze-statue.
Lost Wax Casting
"Bronze objects have been cast using the lost wax (cire perdue) process for at least 5,000 years. Although by Auguste Rodin’s day some of the techniques and materials have changed — and today continue to change — much of the process is as it was in ancient times. Lost wax casting is for many the process of choice because it is extremely accurate in replicating detail and because of the durability of the objects it creates. However, the process is very arduous and time-consuming. Most sculptors, including those of Rodin’s day when artists could choose from scores of foundries, depend on independent foundries to cast their works." The Lost Wax Casting Process, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
Further Reading
For more on American bronze casting, read Thayer Tolles, “American Bronze Casting,” in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2004, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/abrc/hd_abrc.htm.