NEXT SESSION: APRIL 4:
Congratulations to all on the successful completion of yet another challenge. We are now officially past the halfway point. That’s right–this week, we hit Challenge #11. This week’s challenge, (Casting Call!),
has us reaching back to an educational practice that may have us reaching back to practices that may have begun as early as mid-5th century Greece: Cast Drawing.
In the mid-third millennium B.C., the Egyptians first pioneered the casting method by plastering the heads of mummies for portraits of the deceased. The Greeks, followed by the Romans, adopted the plaster techniques as a means of reproducing copies of famous Greek marble and bronze statues. The first known location of a plaster cast collection was Imperial Rome. The collapse of the Roman Empire ended the popularity of collecting art in the Mediterranean World. In addition, many argue that the rise of Christianity largely influenced the destruction of sculptures and plaster casts in order to conceal references to previously held pagan beliefs.
A tremendous rediscovery of antiquities occurred in 15th-century Renaissance Europe. In fact, one of the earliest references to casts as a tool for training artists is found in Leonardo da Vinci’s A Treatise on Painting. However, it is believed that Francesco Squarcione, a 15th Italian painter, is said to have been the first artist who collected plaster casts in order to train his apprentices. In the years to come, art schools would continue to make use of plaster casts from recently unearthed antiquities because they felt the works of the ancients were incomparable. The effects of the sculptural rebirth reverberated throughout Europe in the art academies and universities.
If interested, a more comprehensive history of plaster casts from George Mason University can be found here:
https://plastercast.gmu.edu/history
So what are our parameters for this week?
Parameters for Challenge #11, Casting Call!: 1. The subject must be any statue or cast of your choice. As before, if you do not have access to an actual statue or cast, you may paint from a photograph or your computer screen. 2. 30-minute time limit! 3. Premixing is NOT allowed! 4. 5-stroke palette draw rule in effect.
You can browse some beautiful casts in the Caproni Collection here:
Looking forward to seeing you all this week!
