We don’t have an image of this object online yet.

More about images

V&A Images may have a photograph that we can’t show online, but it may be possible to supply one to you. Email us at vaimages@vam.ac.uk for guidance about fees and timescales, quoting the accession number: REPRO.1864-96

Relief Panel

1864 (made), 1864 (cast), 12th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This Romanesque relief panel is from the arch on the door of the Cathedral of Pisa. The plaster cast copy was purchased from Messrs. Franchi and Son in 1864.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Plaster cast
Brief description
Copy of a relief panel from a door, made by Giovanni Franchi & Son in London in 1864.
Physical description
Plaster cast of a relief panel with Romanesque ornamentation.
Dimensions
  • Approximately height: 67cm
  • Approximately width: 36cm
Style
Production typeCopy
Gallery label
(30.11.18)
Cast of
Relief panel from a door, 12th century
Purchased from Giovanni Franchi & Son, 1864
Giovanni Franchi was one of several Italian castmakers working in England. He provided casts, electrotypes and fictile ivories (casts mimicking small ivory carvings) to this Museum, drawing on a long Italian tradition of expert mouldmaking. The Museum commissioned Franchi to travel to Italy on several occasions to copy sculpture and large-scale architectural works. He cast this panel in a mould made from the 12thcentury door of the Cathedral of Pisa in 1864.
Plaster cast
London, England
Museum no. Repro.1864-96
Object history
Cast of a relief panel, made by Messrs. Franchi & Sons and sold in London for £1 10s in 1864. The 12th century original in stone decorates the door of the Cathedral of Pisa.
Historical context
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.
Production
19th century plaster cast after 12th century Italian original
Summary
This Romanesque relief panel is from the arch on the door of the Cathedral of Pisa. The plaster cast copy was purchased from Messrs. Franchi and Son in 1864.
Bibliographic reference
Collection
Accession number
REPRO.1864-96

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
Download as: JSON