Bronze has been employed as a sculpting material for thousands of years. One of the reasons why many modern artists have been drawn to the bronze medium is that the metal expands just before it sets, allowing artists to highlight microscopic details in relief. Creating bronze sculptures requires a high degree of precision, plenty of resources, and a good deal of patience. The sculpting process begins when an artist creates a clay mold of a subject. This mold is then used to create a wax casting. The casting, in turn, gets boiled away, leaving a hollowed out shell, which then gets filled with liquid bronze. The bronze hardens in the shell, expanding so as to capture the essential small details, and then the artist removes the shell, otherwise known as the "investment." In 18th-century France, a technique to matte bronze with gold developed. This technique, known as ormolou, lends bronze sculptures a degree of sheen and appeal. Ormolu sculptures typically give off a hollow sound when knocked. You can find a plethora of examples when you peruse the catalogs of 18th-century France, including wall sconces, candleholders, gilded clocks, and certain pieces of furniture. Given bronze's scarcity and its susceptibility to corrosion by the elements, it's no surprise that governments and patrons are often loathe to commission bronze sculptures. That being said, new, more resilient and ductile alloys of bronze are being developed for artistic purposes. Some modern-day bronze aficionados have begun collecting the bronze reliefs used in engineered circuits. |
