
Finding Lost Wax
The Disappearance and Recovery of an Ancient Casting Technique and the Experiments of Medardo Rosso
Sharon Hecker(Editor)
Brill (Publisher)
Published on 11. December 2020
Book
Hardback
380 pages
978-90-04-43421-9 (ISBN)
Description
This book is the first scholarly account of how lost wax casting was forgotten and rediscovered around the world thanks to transmission of know-how by Italian founders in the late nineteenth century. Against this backdrop, Medardo Rosso, an Italian sculptor living in Paris, overturned rules of the technique through creative approaches to serial reproduction. His unusual casts prefigured experiments in casting in the modern era. The volume includes art-historical essays by distinguished scholars on the revival of lost wax casting in different countries and a case study of Rosso's Bambino ebreo series, including scientific analysis and conservation studies.
Podcast interview with Sharon Hecker about this book: #HumanitiesMatter - Remodeling a Lost Wax Technique: The Methods of Medardo Rosso (brill.com).
Podcast interview with Sharon Hecker about this book: #HumanitiesMatter - Remodeling a Lost Wax Technique: The Methods of Medardo Rosso (brill.com).
Reviews / Votes
"The book is a mine of useful material. It is the best publication in English on the revival of lost-wax casting in the closing decades of the nineteenth century; it is an essential source for archival detail on Rosso; and it points a way forward for the use of scientific analysis in the study of variant casts."Patrick Elliott in Sculpture Journal
"... the book is a solid addition to the growing literature of technical art history's marriage to traditional art history, with interesting insights into Rosso's working practice."
Jane R. Becker in Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
957 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-43421-9 (9789004434219)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Sharon Hecker, Ph.D. U.C. Berkeley (1999), is a leading authority on Medardo Rosso. Her books include A Moment's Monument: Medardo Rosso and the International Origins of Modern Sculpture and Postwar Italian Art History Today: Untying 'The Knot'.
Content
Contributors: Sharon Hecker, Francesca Bewer, Ann Boulton, Federico Caro, Penelope Curtis, Francesca Caterina Izzo, Andrew Lacey, Elisabeth Lebon, Massimiliano Marafon, Luc Megens, Austin Nevin, Max Rahrig, Lluisa Sarries i Zgonc, Ronald E. Street, Yasuko Tsuchikane, Rebecca Wade, Veronika Wiegartz