This volume originates from an international conference (Oxford University, 2007). Texts address plaster casts and related themes from antiquity to the present day, and from Egypt to America, Mexico and New Zealand. They are of interest to classical archaeologists, art historians, the history of collecting, curators, conservators, collectors and artists. Articles explore the functions, status and reception of plaster casts in artists’ workshops and in private and public collections, as well as hands-on issues, such as the making, trading, display and conservation of plaster casts. Case-studies on artists’ use of material and technique include ancient Roman copyists, Renaissance sculptors and painters, Dutch 17th-century workshops, Canova, Boccioni and others. A second theme is the role of plaster casts in the history of collecting from the Renaissance to the present day. Several papers address the dissemination of visual ideas, models and ideals through the medium. Papers on modern and contemporary art illuminate the changing uses and semantic values of plaster casts in this period. Amongst the types of casts discussed are artists’ models and final works as well as casts after antiquities, including sculpture, architecture and gems (dactyliothecae). The volume demonstrates the richness of the field, both in terms of the material itself and modern scholarship concerned with it. Conceived as a handbook for students, academics, curators and collectors, the text will form a standard work on the role of plaster casts in the history of Western sculpture.

Step-by-step techniques for modeling the portrait in clay, firing meethods and mold making.

Casts, Splints, and Support Bandages: Nonoperative Treatment and Perioperative Protection provides an extensive overview of the history, principles, methods, and techniques for applying a modern plaster or synthetic cast. The book comprises three sections: The Principles of Casting section outlines the basic principles of casting and splinting, the physical properties of cast materials, and socioeconomic considerations The Guidelines section explores nonoperative treatment for fractures, ligament, nerve, and soft-tissue injuries, overload injuries, and infections, in the upper and lower extremities and the spine Finally, the Techniques section provides step-by-step descriptions on 55 individual cast, splint, orthosis, and bandaging techniques, presented in high quality online video, and as stills with explanatory captions. Hear the authors discuss Casts, Splints, and Support Bandages. AOTrauma is proud to bring you this incredibly important and comprehensive text, which will be of interest to a wide range of medical professionals including trauma and orthopedic surgeons, specialist cast technicians, rural doctors, residents in training, and ORP. It is the ideal resource for any busy hospital or orthopedic/trauma practice.

Mouldmaking and Casting is a technical manual of the many techniques of this ancient craft and art form. With step-by-step illustrations, it explains the materials required and the processes involved to create reproductions of a range of pieces. The book covers traditional techniques as well as today's more advanced technical methods.

We are taught to believe in originals. In art and architecture in particular, original objects vouch for authenticity, value, and truth, and require our protection and preservation. The nineteenth century, however, saw this issue differently. In a culture of reproduction, plaster casts of building fragments and architectural features were sold throughout Europe and America and proudly displayed in leading museums. The first comprehensive history of these full-scale replicas, Plaster Monuments examines how they were produced, marketed, sold, and displayed, and how their significance can be understood today. Plaster Monuments unsettles conventional thinking about copies and originals. As Mari Lending shows, the casts were used to restore wholeness to buildings that in reality lay in ruin, or to isolate specific features of monuments to illustrate what was typical of a particular building, style, or era. Arranged in galleries and published in exhibition catalogues, these often enormous objects were staged to suggest the sweep of history, synthesizing structures from vastly different regions and time periods into coherent narratives. While architectural plaster casts fell out of fashion after World War I, Lending brings the story into the twentieth century, showing how Paul Rudolph incorporated historical casts into the design for the Yale Art and Architecture building, completed in 1963. Drawing from a broad archive of models, exhibitions, catalogues, and writings from architects, explorers, archaeologists, curators, novelists, and artists, Plaster Monuments tells the fascinating story of a premodernist aesthetic and presents a new way of thinking about history’s artifacts.