PRACTICAL WORKSHOP ON RENAISSANCE BRONZE CASTING AND THE TECHNICAL
INVESTIGATION OF BRONZE SCULPTURES
September 12- 16, 2000
This 5-day workshop/seminar will familiarize the participants with
the basic principles of artistic bronze casting. It will focus
primarily on the lost wax process, but will also provide an
introduction to sand casting. This practical experience will serve as
a basis for understanding and recognizing the kinds of features,
which one may encounter during the technical investigation of
post-medieval bronze sculptures. The structure of the course will be
informal, as it will be dictated to a large extent by the
experimental work. The workshop will combine hands-on experience (in
making a bronze and interpreting evidence), lecture presentations and
discussions. Each of the participants will take a small hollow wax
piece through the various stages of the "indirect" lost wax casting
process and will also have the opportunity to work on a larger
communal piece made by the "direct" lost wax casting process. We will
use these objects to experiment with a variety of mold materials,
waxes, alloys, texturing, repairing and joining methods, and surface
coloration processes.
Documentation will be an important part of the experiments as it will
help us gauge what kinds of alterations may occur in the course of
the process. A selection of pieces will be radiographed at different
stages of the process (the wax stage, once the mold has been burned
out and after the piece is cast). We will also cut open one (or more)
of them to ascertain what the features that have been interpreted in
the radiographs look like from the inside. We will also take metal
samples from the pieces produced by the participants for alloy
composition analysis and metallographic analysis to be performed at a
later date and the results will be shared with the group.
In the course of the workshop FB will give several informal slide
presentations on the technical study of bronzes drawing to a large
extent on material she has worked with over the years. She will
provide handouts with information on key methods of analysis and
examination and a select bibliography. No prior knowledge of bronze
casting or of Renaissance bronzes is necessary but those participants
who have technical material they may want to discuss are welcome to
bring it along.
Tutors: Andrew Lacey (sculptor, bronze founder and
archaeometallurgist), Francesca Bewer (Associate Curator for Research
- in art technical matters - at the Straus Center for Conservation,
Harvard University Art Museums) and Dana Goodburn-Brown
(archaeological conservator and educator)
Cost of course is 360 Pounds Sterling. Course can accomodate 6-8 participants.
This is one of a series of Hands-on Ancient Technology courses
offered by Ancient Materials, Technology and Conservation (AMTeC)
CO-OP Ltd. located in The Historic Dockyard in Chatham, Kent, ca. 1
hour SE of London. It is easily accessible by rail. Accomodations can
be arranged nearby and will cost 30-40 Pounds Sterling/night.
For registration and more information on the course please contact
Andrew Lacey at AMTeC CO-OP Ltd., tel. 44 (0) 1634 832 627; e-mail:
[log in to unmask] Francesca Bewer is also available for
information at (617) 495 0987, e-mail: [log in to unmask]
For more information on AMTeC CO-OP Ltd. you may also visit their
website: http://apollo5.bournemouth.ac.uk/consci/amtec/Amtec.htm
(Please note that Dana Goodburn-Brown, whose e-mail is given as the
contact address on the website, will be away for much of the time
preceding the course and will not be able to respond to enquiries
regarding it.)
Francesca G. Bewer
Associate Curator for Research
Straus Center for Conservation
Harvard University Art Museums
32 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
tel.: (617) 495 0987
fax: (617) 495 0322
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Chris Salter List Owner
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Materials Science-Based Archaeology Group,
Department of Materials,
Begbroke Business and Science Park,
Sandy Lane,
Yarnton,
Oxford OX5 1PF,
Tel. Office 01865 283722
Probe 01865 283741
Fax. 01865 848790
Mobile. 0777 6031608
E-mail [log in to unmask]
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