Bronze
Sculpture and objects cast in bronze, the copper-tin alloy prized for strength, fine detail and a surface that ages well.
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About
Bronze is mainly copper with some tin, and its great virtue for sculpture is casting. In the lost-wax method a model is made in wax, encased in a heat-proof mould and melted out, so molten metal can take its place and record every detail. Cast figures can extend limbs that would snap in stone.
Shang-dynasty China cast ritual vessels of great complexity from about 1600 BC, and the Greek Riace Warriors (5th century BC), recovered from the sea in 1972, show the life-size classical figure at its height. In West Africa, artists at Igbo-Ukwu and Ife produced refined castings centuries before European contact, and Chola sculptors in South India cast dancing Shiva figures around AD 1000. Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus (1545–54) displayed Florentine casting at its boldest, and Henry Moore kept bronze central to modern sculpture. Look for patina colour, seams and the crisp detail of the cast surface.
