Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T07:16:40.717Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

3D imaging of the Parthenon sculptures: an assessment of the archaeological value of nineteenth-century plaster casts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2019

Emma M. Payne Open the ORCID record for Emma M. Payne [Opens in a new window]
Emma M. Payne*
Affiliation:
Department of Classics, King's College London, Strand, LondonWC2R 2LS, UK (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Intent on recording in situ ancient sculptures at risk of deterioration, nineteenth-century archaeologists were at the forefront of an ambitious campaign of plaster-casting. Today, these surrogates preserve details now lost from the originals, but evaluation of their accuracy is of vital importance. Some of the earliest such casts are those held by the British Museum. This article investigates the efficacy of three-dimensional imaging for determining the accuracy of these casts, assessing whether they preserve lost information and whether they can be employed as reliable surrogates for the originals.

Keywords

GreeceParthenonClassical sculptureplaster casts3D imaging
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 93 , Issue 372 , December 2019 , pp. 1625 - 1642
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beard, M. 1993. Casts and cast-offs: the origins of the Museum of Classical Archaeology. Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 39: 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S006867350000170XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casson, S. 1921. Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum, volume 2: sculpture and architectural fragments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Castelvecchi, L.C. 1906. Catalogue of A. Castelvecchi & Co. plastic reproductions of antique and modern masterpieces of art. New York: L. Castelvecchi.Google Scholar
Frederiksen, R. & Marchand, E. (ed.). 2010. Plaster casts: making, collecting and displaying from Classical antiquity to the present. Berlin & New York: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110216875CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frischer, B. 2014. 3D data capture, restoration and online publication of sculpture, in Remondino, F. & Campana, S. (ed). 3D recording and modelling in archaeology and cultural heritage: 137–44. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Haskell, F. & Penny, N.. 1981. Taste and the antique: lure of Classical sculpture, 1500–1900. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hawkins, E. 1852. Report of the Keeper of the Department of Antiquities, 15th May 1852. London: British Museum.Google Scholar
Himmelmann, N. & Sinn, U. (ed). 1981. Akademisches Kunstmuseum der Universität Bonn. Verzeichnis der Abguss-Sammlung. Berlin: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut.Google Scholar
Jenkins, I. 1990. Acquisition and supply of casts of the Parthenon sculptures by the British Museum. The Annual of the British School at Athens 85: 89–114. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068245400015598CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kockel, V. 2010. Plaster models and plaster casts of classical architecture and its decoration, in Frederiksen, R. & Marchand, E. (ed.) Plaster casts: making, collecting and displaying from Classical Antiquity to the present: 419–34. Berlin & New York: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110216875.417Google Scholar
Kurtz, D. 2000. The reception of classical art in Britain: an Oxford story of plaster casts from the Antique sculptures. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Lazer., E. 2009. Resurrecting Pompeii. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203885161CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mulliez, D. 2007. Delphi: the excavation of the Great Oracular Centre (1892), in Valavanis, P. (ed.) Great moments in Greek archaeology: 134–57. Los Angeles (CA): J. Paul Getty Museum.Google Scholar
Papakonstantinou-Ziotis, E. 2012. Surface conservation, in Bouras, C., Ioannidou, M. & Jenkins, I. (ed.) Acropolis restored: 57–64. London: Trustees of the British Museum.Google Scholar
Parliament of Great Britain: House of Commons. 1816. Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Earl of Elgin's collection of sculptured marbles. London: Bulmer & Co.Google Scholar
Payne, E.M. 2019. The conservation of plaster casts in the nineteenth century. Studies in Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1080/00393630.2019.1610845CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinatel, C. 2006. Plaques d'après l'antique de la frise du Parthénon à la Petite Malmaison. Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français, Année 2005: 203–56. Paris: Société de l'Histoire de l'Art.Google Scholar
Schwab, K.A. 2004. The Parthenon east metopes, the gigantomachy and digital technology, in Cosmopoulos, M.B. (ed.) The Parthenon and its sculptures: 150–65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Simpson, S.J. 2000. Rediscovering past splendours from Iran. Nineteenth century plaster casts of sculptures from Persepolis. British Museum Magazine Spring 36: 28–29.Google Scholar
Smith, A.H. 1910. The sculptures of the Parthenon. London: William Clowes & Sons.Google Scholar
Smith, A.H. 1916. Lord Elgin and his collection. Journal of Hellenic Studies 36: 163–372. https://doi.org/10.2307/625773CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Illustrated London News. 1845. Additions to the British Museum. 8 March 1845, p. 156.Google Scholar
The Illustrated London News. 1929. Decaying sculptures on the Parthenon frieze: recent photographs compared with casts made for Lord Elgin in 1801. 18 May 1929, pp. 839–41.Google Scholar
The Times. 1876. The discoveries at Olympia. 15 April 1876, p. 7.Google Scholar
Wade, R. 2018. Domenico Brucciani and the formatori of 19th-century Britain. London & New York: Bloomsbury.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zambon, A. 2014. Aux origines de l'archéologie en Grèce. Fauvel et sa méthode. Paris: CTHS-INHA.Google Scholar