Plaster cast
- Place of origin:
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
V&A Reproduction Department (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 125c, case WS
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Object Type
This plaster cast was one of many made primarily to educate students and craftsmen, and was one of the earliest acquisitions of the Museum. It is taken from the 15th-century church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Venice, which was highly regarded by Ruskin, and considered by many to be one of the most important examples of early Renaissance Venetian architecture.
Materials & Making
Plaster casts were the most common three-dimensional reproductions of architectural details and sculpture, and were produced in great numbers during the 19th century in particular. The wet plaster of Paris (ground alabaster mixed with water) was poured into a mould, and then left to set. Often moulds of a complicated original were made in more than one piece (known as piece-moulds), and the resulting casts joined together with more wet plaster after they had been released from the moulds.
Places
Works of art from Italy (especially Venice, Florence and Rome) were and still are among the most sought-after and most studied examples in Europe and America. Many casts were acquired by the Museum from Italy; at first these were shown alongside original objects (objects which were not reproductions). From the early 1870s onwards plaster casts were displayed in the large galleries known as the Architectural Courts (now known as the Cast Courts). Here they were seen during the 19th century in the company of architectural models, drawings, other items of sculpture and architectural fragments.
Place of Origin
London, England (made)
Date
ca. 1851 (made)
Artist/maker
V&A Reproduction Department (maker)
Materials and Techniques
Plaster cast
Dimensions
Height: 86.5 cm, Width: 21 cm, Depth: 3.5 cm
Object history note
Cast from a panel possibly from the church of Sta Maria dei Miracoli, Venice, Italy
Descriptive line
Plaster cast from Architectural component of Santa Maria de'Miracoli, Venice, 15th Century
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Baker, Malcolm and Richardson, Brenda, eds. Touring Exhibition Catalogue: A Grand Design - The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. with The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1997. pp. 127-128, cat.no.24, ill.
The importance placed on the study of ornament led to the acquisition of both original pieces of architectural decoration (cat.23) and casts such as these. All six were taken from Santa Maria de' Mircoli, an early Renaissance church in Venice. These casts were part of an extensive assemblage of 487 such fragments purchased in 1851, among the earliest casts acquired by the Museum as "a collection originally made for the use of Schools of Design under the Direction of the Board of Trade." Later in the 1850s, when the collection was moved to South Kensington, the casts were supplemented with composite photographs of other, related pilasters, and around 1900 such casts were being displayed alongside photographs showing fuller views of the buildings from which the details were taken (fig.74).Some of the casts from Santa Maria de' Miracoli were discussed and illustrated in Ralph Nicholson Wornum's Catalogue of Ornamental Casts in the Possession of the Department, 3rd Division, The Renaissance Styles, published in 1854. Wornum described the façade of the church as "one of the most remarkable in Italy as a monument of the florid Cinque-cento arabesque, and is in itself an admirable exponent of the style". Much of this collection of casts was photographed in groups in 1893-94. Examples of ornament were among the casts that the Government Schools of Design supplied to provincial art schools. The firm of Brucciani & Co., which produced many of the Museum's casts, including that of Portico de la Gloria (cat.25), continued to issue these until 1922 when, on the company's failure, the workshop was taken over by the Museum, which continued to issue casts until 1951 (fig.75). Although modernist reforms to the art school curriculum meant that drawing from casts was no longer considered a necessary part of an artist's training during the 1960s and 1970s, a renewed interest in the casts has developed among both artists and art historians in the past fifteen years. This shift is reflected in the refurbishment of the cast courts (see fig.52) in the early 1980s and the active use now made of them.
DIANE BILBEY
Exhibition History
Precious: Objects and Changing Values (The Millennium Galleries, Sheffield 02/04/2001-24/06/2001)
A Grand Design - The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum 14/10/1999-16/01/2000)
A Grand Design - The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco 13/02/1999-09/05/1999)
A Grand Design - The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 18/10/1998-10/01/1999)
A Grand Design - The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Royal Ontario Museum 20/06/1998-13/09/1998)
A Grand Design - The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 25/02/1998-17/05/1998)
A Grand Design - The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum (The Baltimore Museum of Modern Art 12/10/1997-18/01/1998)
Labels and date
British Galleries:
Architectural ornament was considered an essential part of a student's design education. The Schools of Design collected both original examples and casts of ornament for students to draw. This cast was taken from an early Renaissance church in Venice. [27/03/2003]
Production Note
Cast from a 15th-century original
Categories
Architectural fittings
Collection code
SCP
