Mobile Logo

Apollo Ecorché and the Salvage’s Innovation

One of the most important anatomical studies applied on the arts belongs to Jean-Galbert Salvage (Saint Flour 1772 - Lavastrie 1813) that published it on 1812. The title of the illustrated book is: Anatomie du Gladiateur Combattant, applicable aux Beaux arts, ou, Traité des os, des muscles, du mécanisme des movements, des proportions et des caractères...

2016-07-20
Art Anatomy
by Andrea Felice

GLAZING BALL – a Contemporary Classic

A lot of contemporary artists has look to greek and roman classical masterpieces with different approaches and media. Casts represented undoubtedly the most versatile support in this regard. From Yves Klein to Man Ray. From Salvador Dalì to Michelangelo Pistoletto the classicism outraged, venerated, violated or praised was the direct vehicle of an artistic message that wants,...

2015-11-15
Contemporary Art
by Andrea Felice

Tale of the First Life-Size Blue Whale’s Cast

Lucas [top whale] and Scollick [third from left] preparing the cast of the blue whale's body, July 1903.
Image courtesy of the National Museum of Natural History

In May 1903 the chief osteologist Frederic A. Lucas with two assistants, William Palmer (chief Taxidermist) and J. W. Scollick (osteological preparatory), were dispatched by Dr. Frederic W. True, Head Curator of...

2015-05-20
Museums True Stories
by Andrea Felice

Man Ray – an-other Body

Man Ray (Emmanuel Rudzitsky 1890–1976) famous american surrealist-dada painter and photographer used to employ plaster casts in his art compositions by transforming their objective meaning. Never oversimplifying, but researching into the cast a symbolic element to use as a personal media of expression. The body of Venus becomes inanimate in plaster, and returns a body bringing it...

2014-11-30
Art Anatomy Contemporary Art
by Andrea Felice

a Bottle of Ink over ‘La Danse’

During the night of 26-27 August 1869 an unknown man stealthily climbed the large stairs of the Opèra Theatre of Garnier in Paris. Looked around, nobody came from the av. de l'Opéra and just be sure to not be seen, violently threw a bottle full of black ink against the beautiful and voluptuous...

2014-09-21
True Stories
by Andrea Felice

The Florentine Gipsoteca

The Florentine Gipsoteca at Porta Romana was one of the most famous and largest in Italy. The origin of this collection comes from plaster casts made ​​during the Celebrations of Donatello in 1887 by the mould makers Angelo Giannini and Oronzio Lelli. Oronzio was the official mould maker of the Royal Galleries in Florence and had...

2014-04-05
Cast Collections
by Andrea Felice