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The Gilded Age mansions of the late nineteenth century were the homes of entrepreneurs who earned their wealth by advancing science, technology, and industry. Those same wealthy entrepreneurs established many of America’s most prominent museums, including the Metropolitan Museum (1870), the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1870), the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1876), and the Art Institute of Chicago (1879). But all the money in the United States couldn’t buy enough top-notch art to fill those museums.

To allow Americans (including aspiring American sculptors) to see great works without traveling to Europe, the museums bought high-quality plaster casts of famous works of art from Greek, Roman, and Renaissance sculptors. Firms in Boston, London, Paris, Berlin, Dresden, Florence, and Rome specialized in creating such casts, at 1:1 scale.

Among the museums that assembled a plaster cast collection was the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum (est. 1896) in Springfield, Massachusetts. Like most American museums, the Smith eventually chose to focus on original works. The plaster casts were sent to storage in the mid-twentieth century. But in the 1970s, they were restored and placed back on display. The Smith has one of the largest plaster cast collections in New England.

The casts are beautiful works of art and great teaching tools. For example: they illustrate several of the major innovations that I described in Innovators in Sculpture. In this post, I’m showing a selection of them in chronological order, noting which innovation each one illustrates.

Discus-Thrower by Myron, ca. 460-450 BC

The Discus-Thrower is a great illustration of Innovation #2: studying anatomy, and also of treating the body not as a collection of bits and pieces, but as an organic whole whose parts change with movement (Innovation #3).

The primary view of this piece is clearly from the side (left photo below), and that’s the way it’s always shown in the textbooks. But I’ve always wanted to see how the Discus-Thrower looks from head-on … and now I have! More on the Discus-Thrower here.

Parthenon pedimental sculptures, 430s BC

These are examples of the Parthenon style, a.k.a. Pheidias’s style. Pheidias was in charge of the artistic decoration of the Parthenon, which was the major building project in the Greek mainland during the second half of the fifth century BC. Established sculptors found work there, and young sculptors learned their trade. Hence Pheidias’s style – idealized and calm – came to dominate Greek sculpture during that period. It’s not an innovation, but it’s a very long-lasting style. See Innovators in Sculpture, Chapter 3, Point 3. More on the Parthenon pediments here.

Hermes with Infant Dionysus by Praxiteles, 4th century BC

Innovation #4 is breaking out of the box. That is: figures no longer look as if they were carved out of a simple, upright, rectangular slab. Praxiteles, who sculpted this piece, was famous for creating figures that swayed to the side.

This sculpture is also usually photographed from the front: I love being able to see it from other angles as well. More on Hermes with Infant Dionysus here.

Ludovisi Ares, late 4th century BC

The Ares also illustrates Innovation #4, breaking out of the box. You can tell this isn’t a work of the 5th century BC because of that putto (cupid) frolicking under the helmet at Ares’s feet: there’s no frolicking in sculpture of the 5th century BC. More on this piece here.

Wrestlers, 3rd century BC

An even more extreme example of Innovation #4: nowhere near being in a box. What a mastery of anatomy this piece shows! And yet, the faces are still calm and idealized. That style lasted in Greek sculpture long after Pheidias’s Parthenon sculptures were finished in the 430s BC. More on the Wrestlers here.

Pergamon Altar, ca. 200-150 BC

Innovation #5 is emotion via facial expression: see especially the face on the figure at the far left. Some examples of facial expression appear during the fourth century BC, but the most vivid examples, such as this one and the Laocoon (below), were created a couple centuries later. More on the Pergamon Altar here.

Laocoon, 1st c. BC?

An even more extreme example of Innovation #5, emotion via facial expression. This is another sculpture that’s usually shown only from the front. More on the Laocoon here.

St. George by Donatello, 1415-1417

With this Renaissance sculpture, we have an example of Innovation #8: rethinking everything. During the Middle Ages, artists tended to show, over and over and over, the same figures identified by the same attributes and in the same poses. (See the beginning of Chapter 8 in Innovators in Sculpture.) In the early fifteenth century, Donatello began reworking all the traditional subjects, including St. George, who’s shown here before his battle with the dragon, rather than in the midst of it.

This is yet another sculpture that’s almost always shown from the front only. More on Donatello’s St. George here.

Putto with Dolphin by Verrocchio, ca. 1465-1480

In the Middle Ages, art was didactic: meant to teach illiterate Christians biblical stories and lessons. This adorably light-hearted piece harks back to Donatello’s choice, in the early fifteenth century, to create art for pleasure rather than for teaching. See Chapter 8 in Innovators in Sculpture. More on Verrocchio here.

Dying Slave by Michelangelo, 1513-1516

Michelangelo’s innovation was not a technique, but an attitude: that a top-notch artist was not a mere tradesman, but a genius who should be allowed to set his own terms for what he creates. Who else but Michelangelo would have thought of placing a dying slave and a rebellious slave on the tomb of a pope? See Chapter 9 in Innovators in Sculpture. More on the Dying Slave here.

Medici Chapel by Michelangelo, ca. 1519-1534

Innovation #9 again: the artist as a genius who can set his own terms for what he’ll produce, and when, and how. This is an idealized portrait of one of the ruling Medici family of Florence. To either side are Dusk and Dawn.

The two reclining figures are set just a trifle too high here, which makes them a bit more emphatic than they are in the original. More on the Medici Chapel here.

This sculpture, like many of those above, is usually only shown from one angle … but seeing only that angle, we miss details such as the fantastic ornament on Lorenzo’s helmet.

More

• The Metropolitan Museum’s plaster-cast collection was given to the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art on West 44th Street, New York City, where it’s now on display. To find a plaster-cast collection near you, search “plaster cast collections” on the Net.
• In Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love, I demonstrate a method for looking at sculptures in detail, in depth, and on your own. Learn to enjoy your favorite sculptures more, and find new favorites. Available on Amazon in print and Kindle formats. More here.
• Want wonderful art delivered weekly to your inbox? Check out my free Sunday Recommendations list and my Patreon page (free or by subscription): details here.