Plaster cast of a tabernacle from the Church of St Leonard at Zoutleeuw made in 1876. The original was probably made in Brussels by Cornelis Floris II in about 1552.

Plaster cast of a tabernacle in the Church of St Leonard at Zoutleeuw.

Cast of a tabernacle made in 1876 and aquired in exchange with the Belgian Royal Commission for Promoting Reproductions of Works of Art. The original was made in stone by Cornelis Floris II probably in Brussels about 1552 and is in the Church of St Leonard at Zoutleeuw, Belgium.

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.

Flemish

A tabernacle houses the Host, or sanctified bread, used in Mass. The imposing original stone tabernacle from which this cast was made measures over 18 metres high. It was commissioned for the Church of St Leonard at Zoutleeuw (now known as Léau) in Belgium, where it still stands today. The maker, Cornelis Floris II, worked in a progressive style that fundamentally influenced 16th-century Northern European sculpture and architecture.

The cast itself is a highly skilled production because of the elaborate nature of the carving. But the name of its maker is not known. We do know, however, that it was produced in Belgium, and presented to the Museum by the Belgian government in 1876 as part of the agreement brokered by this Museum’s first director, Henry Cole. The convention formalised an agreement, ‘mutually to assist the museums of Europe in procuring casts and copies of national objects for the promotion of art’.

REPRO.1876-104