Abstracts

This contribution examines the Roman-era bronze artisans’ techniques and their methods for overcoming difficulties in casting small objects. In observing a group of small bronzes from the Italian region of Marche, realized with the lost-wax technique, we noticed some interesting features about the methods of production. The techniques for improving the casting involve, primarily, the positioning of the casting and vent channels. They can be seen in proximity to those parts of the casting that were more difficult for the molten metal to reach. During the realization of the wax model, the metal-workers concealed the channels so as to become a part of the final sculpture itself, hidden in columns, trunks, or drapery.

This paper presents recent research on the Hellenistic and Roman bronze statuettes in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum. A number of individual statuettes are analyzed for the information they provide regarding the repetitive use of figural types developed during the Classical and early Hellenistic periods in later, primarily Roman, contexts.

Two categories of iconography are investigated: types that appear to be dependent on large-scale Classical visual forms, such as the very commonly found standing Mercury motif, and types that were conceived in small-scale format, such as dwarfs and genre figures. The paper provides a brief analysis of the visual relationships that these types have with their earlier models and with images in other media to offer some preliminary conclusions and ask further questions about visual replication in the realm of small-scale bronzes.