Jane, Lisa, Branden and Evonne spent five days in the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. This extended stay was organized by Angela Chang (Assistant Director, Conservator of Objects and Sculpture, and Head of Objects Lab). And, together with Suzan C. Şengöz (then Assistant Director of Registration), she facilitated the study of HAM's Medallion of Clement IX and Matilda statuette as well as three medallions in the Michael Hall collection.
We were joined at times by two members of the Bernini's Bronze Scientific Advisory; Jane's longtime collaborator on CAST:ING and other projects, Francesca Bewer, HAM’s Research Curator, Conservation and Technical Study Programs, Director of Summer Institute for Technical Studies in Art, and Tony Sigel, formerly Senior Conservator of Objects and Sculpture at the Straus Center of Conservation, Harvard Art Museums. We had been wanting to look at some works with Tony that have tool marks that were made in both the wax inter-model versus the clay model as—especially on the Matildas—we encounter both. Francesca’s and Tony’s expertise in sculpture, technical examinations and Bernini’s works were most welcome!
We're still sorting through the results of our week in Cambridge but having several medallions to look at together helped to crystallize some thoughts about the two casting techniques we have encountered and the different kinds of cold work on both types. Even if a two-part mold saved time by avoiding an inter-model, laborious cold work was still used to jazz up the surface. This was our sense of the HAM Clement IX medallion.
