Plaster cast of a statue of Mercury and Psyche probably made in Paris in 1865. The original was made by Adriaen de Vries in 1593.

Plaster cast of a statue depicting the winged messenger of the Gods, Mercury, carrying Psyche to be reunited with her lover Cupid.

Copy of a statue of Mercury and Psyche made in plaster probably in Paris in 1865 and purchased from Van den Broeck, Brussels, in 1865 for an unrecorded sum. The original was cast in bronze for the Habsburg Emperor Rudolph II by Adriaen de Vries in 1593, and is now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Making plaster copies is a centuries-old tradition that reached the height of its popularity during the 19th century. The V&A's casts are of large-scale architectural and sculptural works as well as small scale, jewelled book covers and ivory plaques, these last known as fictile ivories.

The Museum commissioned casts directly from makers and acquired others in exchange. Oronzio Lelli, of Florence was a key overseas supplier while, in London, Giovanni Franchi and Domenico Brucciani upheld a strong Italian tradition as highly-skilled mould-makers, or formatori.

Some casts are highly accurate depictions of original works, whilst others are more selective, replicating the outer surface of the original work, rather than its whole structure. Like a photograph, they record the moment the cast was taken: alterations, repairs and the wear and tear of age are all reproduced in the copies. The plasters can also be re-worked, so that their appearance differs slightly from the original from which they were taken.

To make a plaster cast, a negative mould has to be taken of the original object. The initial mould could be made from one of several ways. A flexible mould could be made by mixing wax with gutta-percha, a rubbery latex product taken from tropical trees. These two substances formed a mould that had a slightly elastic quality, so that it could easily be removed from the original object. Moulds were also made from gelatine, plaster or clay, and could then be used to create a plaster mould to use for casting.
When mixed with water, plaster can be poured into a prepared mould, allowed to set, and can be removed to produce a finished solid form. The moulds are coated with a separating or paring agent to prevent the newly poured plaster sticking to them. The smooth liquid state and slight expansion while setting allowed the quick drying plaster to infill even the most intricate contours of a mould.
Flatter, smaller objects in low relief usually require only one mould to cast the object. For more complex objects, with a raised surface, the mould would have to be made from a number of sections, known as piece-moulds. These pieces are held together in the so-called mother-mould, in order to create a mould of the whole object. Once the object has been cast from this mother-mould, the piece-moulds can be easily removed one by one, to create a cast of the three-dimensional object.

North Netherlandish

The winged messenger of the gods, Mercury, carries Psyche to be reunited with her lover Cupid. The spiralling figures and sense of movement demonstrate the compositional skill of Adriaen de Vries. Originally from the Netherlands, De Vries was a pupil of the sculptor Giambologna, who worked for the Medici court in Florence. Giambologna was one of the most important sculptors of his day, admired for the sense of action he captured in his work.

The Museum acquired this plaster cast in 1865, indicating a Victorian taste for a post-Renaissance style of sculpture known as Mannerism. Both Giambologna and De Vries embodied the courtly style with their sensual and elegant figures. De Vries made the original sculpture for the Habsburg Emperor Rudolph II, who assembled a large collection of art at his court in Prague.

REPRO.1865-48