Presbyster Bruno thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Cast Courts, The Ruddock Family Cast Court, Room 46A

Presbyster Bruno

Tombstone
ca. 1873 (made), ca. 1200 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

In 1873, the Museum acquired a number of plaster casts of key sculptural monuments from the cathedral of Hildesheim, Germany. This cast is one of them. It reproduces the slab of an elaborate tomb memorial which commemorates a priest, Bruno, who is praised in the inscriptions for giving charity to the poor. The cast is displayed upright to reflect the position of the original slab in the cathedral today.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitlePresbyster Bruno (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Painted plaster cast
Brief description
Plaster cast of a tombstone commemorating Bruno the Priest made by Friedrich Küsthardt in Hildesheim about 1873. The original was made in Hildesheim about 1200.
Physical description
Plaster cast of a tombstone commemmorating Bruno the priest in Hildesheim Cathedral. Bruno is praised in the inscriptions for giving charity to the poor. The cast is displayed upright to reflect the position of the original slab in the cathedral today.
Dimensions
  • Height: 218.5cm
  • Width: 77cm
Production typeCopy
Gallery label
  • Cast of Unknown artist Memorial to Bruno the Priest About 1200 In 1873, the Museum acquired a number of plaster casts of key sculptural monuments from the cathedral of Hildesheim, Germany. This cast is one of them. It reproduces the slab of an elaborate tomb memorial which commemorates a priest, Bruno, who is praised in the inscriptions for giving charity to the poor. The cast is displayed upright to reflect the position of the original slab in the cathedral today. Cast Friedrich Küsthardt About 1873 Painted plaster Hildesheim, Germany Museum no. Repro.1873-380 Original Stone Hildesheim, Germany Hildesheim Cathedral (in the cloister) (21/06/2018)
  • In 1873, the Museum acquired a number of plaster casts of key sculptural decorations in the cathedral of Hildesheim, all produced by the Hildesheim sculptor Friedrich Küsthardt. This slab reproduces an elaborate tomb memorial, which commemorates a priest who is praised in the inscriptions for having given to the poor. It is unclear whether this slab would originally have been displayed horizontally. Today, it is displayed like the cast in the gallery at the V&A, upright. Glyn Davies
Object history
Cast of a tombstone to commemmorate Bruno the Priest made by Friedrich Künsthardt in Hildesheim about 1873 and purchased from F. Künsthardt in 1873 for £6. The original was made in stone by an unknwon artist in Hildesheim about 1200 and is from Hildesheim Cathedral.
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.
Subject depicted
Summary
In 1873, the Museum acquired a number of plaster casts of key sculptural monuments from the cathedral of Hildesheim, Germany. This cast is one of them. It reproduces the slab of an elaborate tomb memorial which commemorates a priest, Bruno, who is praised in the inscriptions for giving charity to the poor. The cast is displayed upright to reflect the position of the original slab in the cathedral today.
Collection
Accession number
REPRO.1873-380

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Record createdJuly 10, 2000
Record URL
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