The Plaster Cast and the Intimacy of the Studio

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37558/gec.v23i1.1214
Keywords: plaster cast, studio, lineage, Netherlands

Abstract

In the seventeenth century, plaster casts, which were essential sources of inspiration and instruction, became a recurring motif in images of Dutch painters’ workspaces, a marker of both intellectual and manual labor. Painters used plaster casts to proclaim their erudite knowledge of antiquity and of Renaissance sculpture that emulated ancient models. Plaster casts also provided a means for ambitious painters to communicate their personal and aspirational ties to other masters. The presence of plaster casts in archival records along with painted depictions of the studio provide insights into the impact of these objects on Dutch artists’ practice and the distinguished lineages they claimed.

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Author Biography

Isabella Lores-Chavez, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, USA

Associate Curator of European Paintings at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, completed her Ph.D. in Art History at Columbia University in May 2022. Her dissertation focused on the circulation and depiction of plaster casts in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. Isabella was the 2020-2022 Samuel H. Kress Predoctoral Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts. From 2018 to 2019, she was the Theodore Rousseau Fellow in European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. From 2016 to 2018, she was the Academic Coordinator for the Getty-funded project Spanish Italy and the Iberian Americas. Born in Cali, Colombia and raised in Los Angeles, Isabella received her B.A. in Art History from Yale in 2012. In 2013, she curated a small exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, entitled Dutch and French Genre Drawings from the Robert Lehman Collection. She has also worked at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

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Published
2023-06-21
How to Cite
Lores-Chavez, I. (2023). The Plaster Cast and the Intimacy of the Studio . Ge-Conservacion, 23(1), 120-128. https://doi.org/10.37558/gec.v23i1.1214
Issue
Vol. 23 No. 1 (2023): Ge-conservación Nº23
Section
Suplemento
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