Search

Throughout his career, Donatello (1383/6–1464) produced sculptures with surfaces that simulated a more precious material than the one underneath. Typically motivated by an ambition to reproduce ancient feats, Donatello's surface cunning provoked admiration as well as unease. By reading these sculptures alongside other practices aimed at altering the appearance, but not the essence, of something, and examining the preoccupations these "cosmetic acts" reveal in a culture where the lure and distrust of surface appearances were intertwined, we can see Donatello in a new light—as a cosmetic provocateur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What did modern sculpture entail in the early twentieth century? Scholarship has consistently identified sculpture’s modernity with the adoption of direct carving and the rejection of clay modeling, but this article challenges such a dichotomy by examining three instruction books on sculpture published in Britain in the early twentieth century. The books are characteristic of a genre of technical writing that promotes clay modeling as the foundation of sculpture. Although significant numbers of instruction books were published in the period, they have been little-studied because of their didactic nature; yet in their emphasis on modeling techniques, they can be approached as useful sources. My argument is driven by two considerations: that the instruction books were written by successful sculptors; and that they highlight the persistence of long-standing sculptural practices that have been excluded from standard narratives. Given the preponderance of direct carving in conceptions of modern sculpture, these books offer a counter-narrative of modernity that can revise, or at least nuance, prevailing conceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the work of American sculptor Martin Puryear dealing with elegant sculptures that are laden with complexity, contradictions, history, and metaphor. The author discusses the illusion of simplicity as a characteristic of his work. Puryear's interest in local craft design and traditions led him to study Scandinavian design, etching, and printmaking at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts and met cabinet maker James Krenov.

The article asks why the nude figure's vulva in Duchamp's Étant donnés appears to be depicted inaccurately? It may be that Duchamp simplified the anatomy in order that it be indicated but not dominate the entire installation. An overly graphic depiction might have detracted from the scene in its entirety. The figure was based on a drawing and plaster cast of Maria Martins, who was fifty-five years old at the time and had five children, which may point to physical changes due to age and childbirth. The weight of the plaster during the casting process might also produce distortions. The figure as presented maintains an extremely difficult pose that, in combination with the physical irregularities, could be the result of an accumulation of errors over the many years of production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The south-western Iberian stelae from the Final Bronze Age (FBA) and Early Iron Age (EIA) have long been the centre of archaeological interest. These monuments show representations of human and animal figures, objects such as weapons, ornaments and chariots. Moreover, they provide insights into prehistoric stone working and sculpting techniques. On the downside, petrological studies of the rocks and consequent reflections on suitable tools are still the exception. Due to the lack of analysis and technological studies, this research will put emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach involving petrographic and metallurgic analyses, complemented by experimental archaeology. Firstly, an accurate lithological determination of stelae from Capilla (Spain) has been established with petrographic methods. According to the results, two slabs for replications of stelae were obtained from the identified mono-mineral quartz-sandstone ("quartzite") outcrop. The experiment involved the trial of chisels made from all expedient materials that were available in the FBA-EIA by a professional stonemason. Considering that such extremely hard rocks require robust tools for carving, a long ignored iron chisel from the FBA site of Rocha do Vigio (Portugal) was studied with metallography and exposed heterogeneous, however surprisingly high-carbon steel. The analysed rocks are amongst the hardest that can be used for sculpting, and in the course of the experiment, bronze and lithic tools could be discarded. The only tool that showed an effect was the replication of the steel chisel from Rocha do Vigio with a hardened edge. The distinct work traces were compared to the original monuments. We hypothesize that the production of carbon steel as well as its hardening were possibly already known at the FBA-EIA transition in Iberia. Hence, only the access to iron technology allowed for the making of stelae from the lithotypes that were frequently used in the Zújar basin around the municipality of Capilla. • Protohistoric south-western Iberian stelae were often made from extremely hard rocks. • The silicate quartz-sandstone stelae from Capilla could only be carved with hardened steel. • Analyses of a Final Bronze Age iron chisel from Portugal revealed surprisingly high quality steel. • The introduction of iron metallurgy represents a terminus post quem for stelae with this lithology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the life and career of three African American artists who live and work in San Antonio, Texas. Topics mentioned include the artistic journey of painter Carmen Cartiness Johnson, the themes she used in her works including the places of her childhood, the art education of sculptor Paul Hurd, his narrative style in sculpting, and the inspiration of figurative and landscape artist Howard Rhoder.

The article discusses the use of plaster as a disseminator of sculptural forms during the 16th century. The question of the ways in which copies and variants underlay many developments in sculpture in the Renaissance is addressed. The validity of the observations of Italian art historian Giovan Battista Armenini in his treatise "De veri precetti della pittura" is considered by reviewing the early history of the use of plaster casts as a means of dissemination of visual ideas across Europe.

The article investigates a triptych painted in Bruges, Belgium in 1480 by Hans Memling, German painter who moved to Flanders and worked in the tradition of early Netherlandish painting. A description of the sculpted and architectural forms represented on the painted panels is presented. The possible sources of influence of Memling are also mentioned.

This paper examines the conservation treatment of a lacquered Buddha sculpture undertaken by a Buddhist conservator as part of a postgraduate heritage conservation training programme in London. This creative process selects from a mixture of ideas and practices as a specific response to the people, time, and place of the conservation treatment. Rather than seen as a polarized choice between versions of ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ approaches, the conservation practice is interpreted though a Buddhist understanding of the sculpture in relation to the secular requirements of the current owner. The treatment addressed issues of the physical stability of the object, the reversibility of applied treatments, and the accommodation of Buddhist concepts of ‘completeness’, ‘toplessness’, and ‘no killing’. The result was a Buddha sculpture made into a ‘plausible’ conservation object that represents the compromises necessary at the time and place of the conservation intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Estúdio (1647-6158) is the property of Revista Estudio and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

LEGO is a globally popular toy composed of colorful interlocking plastic bricks that can be assembled in many ways; however, this special feature makes designing a LEGO sculpture particularly challenging. Building a stable sculpture is not easy for a beginner; even an experienced user requires a good deal of time to build one. This paper provides a novel approach to creating a balanced LEGO sculpture for a 3D model in any pose, using centroid adjustment and inner engraving. First, the input 3D model is transformed into a voxel data structure. Next, the model's centroid is adjusted to an appropriate position using inner engraving to ensure that the model stands stably. A model can stand stably without any struts when the center of mass is moved to the ideal position. Third, voxels are merged into layer-by-layer brick layout assembly instructions. Finally, users will be able to build a LEGO sculpture by following these instructions. The proposed method is demonstrated with a number of LEGO sculptures and the results of the physical experiments are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the sculptors who signed a letter about their objection to the jury of a national exhibition to be held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and examines their use of welding and other direct-metal techniques to make abstract sculpture. These sculptors include David Hare, Herbert Ferber and Theodore Roszak. It discusses the labels given to the sculptors, and the loss of popularity of these sculptors in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The article offers information on artist Ronald Labelle and his sculptural works. Topics discussed include degree in fine arts from Sir George William University between 1959 and 1962, work in book and magazine publishing, meeting with glassblower Claude Morin, workshop given by Morin in 1976 in which Labelle was a participant, setting up of glassblowing studio by Labelle and production of material like scrap sheet glass and establishment of Espace Verre, glass school.

The article discusses the work of sculptor Raffaele Monti, which focuses on the exhibition of his piece "The Veiled Woman" at the 1854 Royal Panopticon of Science and Art in London, England. Topics discussed include the techniques used to display the sculpture, the reception the sculpture and it's depiction of a veil received, and the techniques used by Monti to create his sculptures.

The replication casting process gives the open-cell aluminum foams that can be used in many industrial applications as well as in filtering technology The essential requirement for filters is the uniformity of filtering degree which is defined by the minimal pore size. However the structure of replication castings is often inhomogeneous and the minimal pore radius is decreasing in the direction of melt infiltration. The objective of this investigation is to study the dynamics of melt impregnation of the porous medium by vacuum suction to identify the possibility of reducing the anisotropy. Theoretical data illustrate the processes at the boundary between melt and gas medium. The experiments were carried out using the replication aluminum samples produced according to commercial technology. It was found that the permeability coefficient varies throughout the height of castings. A method for estimation of pressure on the line of melt movement was proposed. The resistance of NaCl layer and circular vents of the mold causes the inhomogeneity of castings. Finally the ways of minimizing the anisotropy were offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Pakistan, till recently, the world knew only about the rock carvings of the northern areas of Pakistan. But in the recent years several researchers have documented rock carvings in the other areas of Pakistan too which include the areas of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The present researcher found some undocumented rock carvings in Chitral which are the focus of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the sculpted head of a young woman displayed in Archaeological Museum of Sparta. It describes the sculpture as great work of art with a level higher than the usual Spartan sculptures. It notes that the sculpture consists of a portrait head of a young woman and includes part of the torso and a wedge employed for the insertion of the head into a statue.

The article focuses on the monumental marble freestanding sculptural composition by Apollonios and Tauriskos, representing the theme of Punishment of Dirke. It offers a comparison of the information about the sculptors, with the Rhodian institutions as attested by inscriptions, and its implications for the issue of the artists' origin and the date of their activity.

Con el pretexto de levantar con fidelidad algunas esculturas de Chillida y Oteiza, y contribuir así a su dibujado planimétrico, el autor se cuestiona si el dibujo forma parte del proceso creativo de cada escultor. Por otra parte, la manera en que abordamos el dibujo de las esculturas ya acabadas, nos ayuda a comprenderla complejidad, no sólo del pensamiento teórico de sus artífices, sino del rigor que supone un estricto levantamiento arquitectónico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses "Guitar," a constructed-paper sculpture made by the artist Pablo Picasso in 1912. It is argued that the paper "Guitar" should be seen as the inaugural work of modern sculpture. The work's relationship to its sequel, the sheet-metal "Guitar" made by Picasso in 1914, is discussed. The author explores how the earlier work is related to contemporary collages and constructions and how it became a conceptual model for subsequent works. The author also suggests that the de-skilled technique used by the artist in the creation of "Guitar" allows the work to reflect on contemporary labor conditions.

Copyright of Sociologija: Mintis ir Veiksmas is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article discusses the process by which contemporary fine art sculpture and installation is fabricated on behalf of a number of internationally renowned artists, as seen from the floor of a New York studio. It is an insider account, which not only outlines the sculpture-making process but also offers a thorough examination of the day-to-day conditions in which art-workers undertake their specialised labour. Various occupational and material hazards are discussed, as well as how the latter affects areas beyond the studio walls. In an absence of critical debate pertaining to the artworlds' polluting practices, a critique is formed which queries the sustainability of large art works that seldom disclose anything as to the nature of their production. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses artist and sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi and a May 2, 1958 article in "The Times" about his illustrated lecture at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, England. The author discusses the use of the term "God-breaking" in referring to modern artists. Other topics addressed include an exhibition of sculptures by Paolozzi at the Hanover Gallery in London, England, architectural critic Reyner Banham and art critic Lawrence Alloway, and Paolozzi's work as part of the "as found" aesthetic and New Brutalist art and architecture movement. Also discussed is Paolozzi's sculpture technique, including objects used to create the surfaces of his sculpture and the lost-wax casting method.

Chapter 2 is presented of the book "The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore: The Terracotta Sculpture," volume 5 of the Corinth XVIII series, by Nancy Bookidis. The chapter focuses on the technique of the Greek terracotta sculpture found in the excavation of the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore in Corinth, Greece. Topics include technical development in sculpture from from the Bronze age to the Archaic period, the use of large-scale statuary, and features such as drapery and statue models.

Around the turn of the last century, a dozen manuals on sculpture technique were published. These texts, written by leading sculptors of the day, offer a valuable glimpse into technical processes and the daily routine of the sculptor's studio. This article reconsiders "How To" publications as a genre and their potential as an art historical source. It then presents a composite guide to modeling technique based on a detailed rereading of manuals published c.1880-l933.ln looking again at the sculptor's craft in the decades surrounding the emergence of modernism, this article also considers how far modeling was renewed and reinvented or became a moribund art as argued by hostile critics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution tracks some of the theoretical parameters that regulated the estimation of physicality in sculptural practice in eighteenth-century France. It follows the decline of public demonstrations of improvised skill and their gradual replacement by private sketching. Although this transition illustrates the positive evaluation granted technical knowledge in the eighteenth century, it also reveals the survival of a hierarchical understanding of sculptural activity, articulated in particular in the notion of genius. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses some aspects of nonverbal creative processes, starting with uses and defenses of silence by modern sculptors such as Constantin Brancusi and David Smith. It reads their practices together with certain statements by the artists, as well as those from contemporaries Martin Heidegger and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The methods applied by Brancusi when teaching his young apprentice Isamu Noguchi in 1927 are compared to Heidegger's discussion of tools in Sein und Zeit, published in the same year. With his technical background and firsthand knowledge of workshop methods, Wittgenstein comes surprisingly close to Smith's position in describing the nonverbal nature of making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English imperial adventurer, writer and late new sculptor Herbert Ward (1863-1919) was an important international artist and turn-of-the-century society figure. Depicting Congolese tribespeople in nineteen bronze sculptures and two popular books inspired by his five-year exploration of the then-Belgian-controlled Congo Free State during 1884-9, Ward won two Salon gold medals for his monumental bronzes. Ward's sculptures and extensive collection of Congolese artefacts were subsequently bought and exhibited both privately and publicly across the circum-Atlantic world, where they were employed in a range of often contradictory ways ranging from formal art exhibitions at the Paris Salon through imperial apologetics in Brussels to didactic ethnographic displays at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. And yet, Ward's sculptures hardly appear in the extant scholarship on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century sculptural history, while previous museological writings on Ward's exhibitions have focused on the utilization of the sculptor's Congolese collection, rather than on the exhibition of Ward's sculptural oeuvre. In this article, I address these issues and omissions by exploring the differing sculptural encounters that were provided through Ward's statues as they were exhibited across Europe and America. Comparing the domestic display of Ward's newly created sculptures at his Parisian home from 1910 onwards, with both the Brussels exhibition of his works in the palace of King Leopold II and the public, didactic exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History from 1921, I examine how the visual relationships between the Congolese objects and Ward's bronzes generated very different sculptural and ideological effects, with far-reaching consequences for the history of Ward's sculptures, collection and reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the art works of Colombian sculptor Doris Salcedo. It states that she used altered domestic objects in her art that trigger processes of memory and mourning. It adds that her sculptures are politically informed and reflect the loss of human life and violence in Colombia. It describes Salcedo's works like the "Atrabiliarios" and "Orphan's Tunic."

An essay is presented on the art work of British sculptor Marilène Oliver. It mentions the artist's use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) scanning technologies in her sculptures. Oliver reveals that her use of technologies helps in promoting the decentralisation of the self. It presents a description of Oliver's sculpture entitled "I Know You Inside Out," a digitized casting of convicted murderer Joseph Paul Jernigan.

This essay discusses the author's creation of "Unwearable" textile sculptures as her effort to recover her father's lost body. Her sculptures, based on the clothing that her father wore in pictures, were seen as a creation of mourning for her father and reclamation. It offers a description of a photograph of her father as a baby and a young man. The author states that her artwork is her way of touching the dead.

An essay is presented on Canadian artist Blair Brennan. It notes that the artist collects objects such as old knives, used toothbrushes and scraps of papers. It states that when he combines all the objects into an art work, relationships develop among the objects that may tell a story that the artist want to tell. It adds that the process of collecting is an important factor of art-making. It mentions German composition artist Joseph Beuys as a major influence in Brennan's art work.

This essay examines the art work of English sculptor Antony Gormley. It states that Gormley works with the inanimate and inert substance and his sculptures do not show humans in different positions and gestures but explore the inner spaces of their bodies. It offers a description on how he made a sculpture carved from his own form where discovered the inner space of his body as well as its zone of energies and tensions.

The article discusses the history of food art in the U.S. and its implications for contemporary sculpture. It describes sculptures and monuments made from butter, sugar, and corn at state or industrial fairs, the social and symbolic significance of food art as a sing pointing to the ideas of harvest and abundance, and the relationship between food art and popular culture. Other subjects under discussion include a bas-relief sculpture made from butter at the Women's Building of the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, a government building made from local agricultural crops by Kansas artist Henry Worrall, and the Atchison Corn Carnival in 1902.

The article focuses on Julio González, a pioneer among sculptors. It says that because of his training as a metalworker, González developed a unique style of sculpture using welded iron, which he named "drawing in space." His new style of sculpting has influenced many sculptors later in the twentieth century, including the American artist, David Smith. However, at the end of González's short artistic career, many of his sculptures have ended up cast in posthumous bronze casting. It also discusses posthumous bronze casting and the three principal types of sculpture: carving, modeling, and constructing. It also advocates the adoption of some minimum standards of artwork labeling across institutions to alleviate some of the concerns of unethical posthumous casting.

Sculptor Marilène Oliver and cardiothoracic surgeon Francis Wells collaborated to deconstruct Leonardo da Vinci's drawing The Great Lady in order to reconstruct it as a three-dimensional sculpture. Employing lessons learned from contemporary radiology, they simulated cross sections of The Great Lady that were drawn in pen and ink onto a stack of acrylic sheets. Here Oliver and Wells give independent accounts of the project, not only sharing how their relationship with Leonardo's drawing evolved over the course of the project but also exposing the differences in approach by the scientist and the artist to a science-art project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the artist Robert Smithson and his landscape sculpture "Spiral Jetty." It discusses the various media in which the work exists, including a film produced by Smithson and a series of photographs by the photographer Gianfranco Gorgoni. The sculpture, located near the Great Salt Lake in Utah, is described and its influence on art and earthworks is explored. The fact that Smithson used the work to inspire other drawings is noted and information about the process of constructing the sculpture is also included.

Today's modern Armed Forces have various information systems developed independently with different software arthitectures for different purposes. Due to Network Centric Warfare (NCW), training, mission rehearsal and planning analysis requirements, interoperability of these information systems gets more important in peace, exercise, crisis and battle environments. However, because of paying insufficient attention to data models and data exchange standards compatibility in these systems, interoperability remains as a crucial and critical problem. Thus, Battle Management Language (BML) is a universal standard that is being developed as a solution to this problem. BML is the unambiguous language used to command and control forces and equipment conducting military operations and to provide for situational awareness and a shared, common operational picture. In other words, BML can be defined as a standart representation of commander's orders, intents and reports to be understood by both live forces and automated systems, for simulated and real- world operations. In addition to this, BML provide development of Command, Control, Communication, Computer and Intelligence (C4I), Modeling Simulation (M&S) and robotic systems through a common data model. In this way, BML yields the achievement of interoperability capability in the system design phase. In this study, after introducing interoperability of information systems briefly, BML approach and its literature review is presented. Furthermore, important points are highlighted following the examination of the requirements of Armed Forces and the actions to meet these requirements are emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We employ a discrete-element technique to investigate the influence of mechanical stratigraphy on the transition from trishear to kink-band fault-propagation fold forms above a blind basement thrust fault. We find that a ‘classic’ trishear fold, consisting of a broad, upwards-widening monocline with limb dips increasing towards the fault tip, occurs where the cover stratigraphy is weak and has no strong mechanical layering. In contrast, we find that marked, bedding-parallel mechanical layering in the cover promotes much narrower, kink-like fold geometries with more constant limb widths and dips. We discuss the modelling results in terms of their implications for structural interpretation and the application of kinematic models of fault-related folding in contractional settings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the use of Weaire-Phelan structure to build a bubble sculpture at the Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. The Weaire-Phelan structure has posed an abstruse scientific problem for mathematicians and physicists. However, the unique mechanical properties and the artistic appeal of the structure have inspired many building designs. The campus was adorned with the sculpture to recognize the achievements of mathematicians Dennis Weaire and Robert Phelan.

The article examines the design of Paul Manship and Daniel Chester French's sculpture titled "John Pierpoint Morgan Memorial" for the Great Hall of Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The panel at the center of the memorial is inscribed with a commemoration of Morgan's service to the Museum as a benefactor and to New York as a leading citizen and financier. Manship's designs for the memorial reflects his broad artistic inspirations and catholic tastes. Critics who praised Manship in the 1910s were interested in his attention to fine craftmanship and synthetic style.

The article examines Bertel Thorvaldsen's relief titled "Nessus Abducting Deianira." Acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the relief is considered one of Thorvaldsen's most dramatic and erotically charged works. Thorvaldsen's skill in relief carving is noticeable in the suggested plasticity of the bodies and the clarity of their silhouttes. Common to his working approaches, he initially fashioned his composition for the sculpture in clay and preserved it in plaster. The Thorvaldsen Museum represents the sculptor's final thoughts on the relief.

This article considers David Smith's presentation of himself as both artist and worker. It does so in the context of his political beliefs and his participation in New York's modernist circles, especially in the 1930s and 19%. As an artist and committed leftist, Smith aligned himself with workers through affiliations with like-minded colleagues in the 1930s — via personal associations, group membership, and dated activities. But Smith's periods of employment as a metal worker in heavy industry, in the 1920s and again in the 1940s, legitimized his status as a worker. Documents from various stages of his career indicate that he saw his relationship with assistants as an extension of these experiences, even when the product was art. He also suggested further continuities between his life as a labourer and as an artist through the similar materials and techniques he employed in each of these roles. While acknowledging the gap between artist and worker, he regularly negotiated these boundaries to the extent that was possible, seeking an accommodation comment with his political views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John DeAndrea is known for producing life sculptures with a startling degree of realism. His choice of materials evolved from wax, to fiberglass, to the use of polyvinyl which makes up the major body of his work, and finally to bronze. DeAndrea's innovative use of plastics increased his success in capturing the illusion of life, and allowed him to refine his techniques. After realizing that plastics deteriorated severely on aging, he chose to reconsider his techniques and materials to gain more structural stability. DeAndrea now works almost exclusively in bronze. This paper traces the evolution of the techniques, materials and stability of John DeAndrea's sculptures. The artist's vision for the care and conservation of his work will be presented, using the Denver Art Museum's Clothed Artist and Model as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a model introduced recently [Nature 424(2003)900], for describing competition between two languages, which in typical situations predicts the extinction of one of them. We generalize it by introducing a spatial dependence in terms of a reaction–diffusion equation. We show that in this generalized model both languages can survive, each mostly concentrated in a different geographical area. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Investment casting research is being carried out by the University of Birmingham, sponsored by EPSRC and a consortium of industrial companies. The programme is aimed at developing a fundamental understanding of the process, with a view to routinely producing sound, net shape castings. A key stage within the investment process is that involving the removal of wax from the unfired ceramic shell. This important process is carried out within the confines of a sealed pressure vessel, more commonly referred to as a Boilerclave*, with external pressure gauges as the only indication of what is actually happening inside the cavity. To metaphorically 'see' inside the vessel would allow the factors controlling de-wax to be characterised and controlled. This paper contains results obtained at The University of Birmingham using a specially instrumented steam autoclave that allows visual data capture, thermal and steam pressure profiles within the chamber, and thermal instrumentation of waxes and shells to be obtained. Results of thermal and pressure profiles inside the vessel body are presented and implications of these results upon the mechanism of wax removal and the effect upon ceramic shells are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the issues of iconography, provenance and style. The article also examines the carving techniques used in the wooden polychrome sculpture of Saint Roch. Saint Roch is the patron saint of the plague-stricken. The vestments of the saitn are of a style that was worn north of the Alps at the beginning of the 16th century. The sculpture portrays the culminating moment in Saint Roch's life and reflects the culture during which it was made. The wooden sculpture was purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1906 as part of the Georges Hoentschel Collection.

Known today only by the name of the region where he lived, Mestre Piranga, an eighteenth-century santeiro (saint-maker), is considered a great artist by afficionados of Brazilian sacred art. Part of the present work consisted in a survey and cataloguing of the surviving religious imagery in the region of the Piranga river valley. A considerable number of these images could be attributed to the master. Three sculptures were analyzed with regard to form, style, iconography and technique of execution (support and polychromy), using scientific methods. Their state of preservation was investigated and a proposal for conservation was drawn up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sculpture of St Gines de la Jara in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, dated 1692, is an outstanding example ofthe estofado technique of imitating brocade in gold leaf and paint. The life-size figure retains most of its original polychromy. In previous restoration treatments, there had been an unsuccessful attempt to simulate the estofado. The present treatment included a comprehensive technical examination, using X-radiography to identify construction techniques and cross-sectional analysis for the layer structure and materials. The decoration of the sculpture was carefully studied with the goal of understanding more clearly the technique of the estofador. A cleaning strategy was then devised. Where there were losses in the estofado, it was decided to aim for a chromatic compensation using watercolours, rather than attempting to duplicate the original process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]