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Plaster Casts
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Plaster Casts

  • PC
  • Collection
  • 19th century-20th century

Collection of plaster casts comprising human figures, architectural fragments, plaster friezes, plaster reliefs, marble reliefs, tondos and busts.

Casts were used as an important teaching aid by the School, from the late 19th century onwards. The casts are generally based on classical statuary and were originally sourced from Greek, Roman and later Italian and medieval periods. Whilst not totally unique (most art schools in the UK and across Europe owned their own collections, purchased from established suppliers in London, Paris etc.), their continued existence within their original setting gives them an added significance. Importantly, the Glasgow School of Art's photographic archive contains many period images of how these casts have been used by staff and students since they were first introduced.

The majority of GSA's plaster cast collection was located in the School's Mackintosh Building at the time of a fire in the building on 23rd May 2014. As a result the majority of the collection suffered damage, of varying degrees, and all casts were subsequently surveyed by a conservator. Six casts were lost in the fire and eleven larger casts have undergone remedial conservation in 2016-17. The majority of the remaining casts have undergone cleaning before being repositioned around GSA's campus during 2019.

*Not available / given

Plaster cast of Antinous

Original: Statue of a young nude male found at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli c1730. Antinous (November 29, 111-October 30, 130) was a member of the entourage of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, to whom he was beloved. Original currently in the collection of The Capitoline, Rome, Italy.

Plaster cast of Apoxyomenos (Vatican Apoxyomenos)

  • PC/002
  • Item
  • Mid 19th century-early 20th century
  • Part of Plaster Casts

This item was lost in the fire in The Mackintosh Building at The Glasgow School of Art on 15th June 2018.

Original: An athlete, caught in the familiar act of scraping sweat and dust from his body with the small curved instrument that the Romans called a strigil. This cast is of the legs of the cast only. Original currently in the collection of the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Vatican, Rome, Italy.

Plaster cast of Augustus of Primaporta

This item was lost in the fire in The Mackintosh Building at The Glasgow School of Art on 15th June 2018.

Original: Statue of Augustus Caesar which was discovered on April 20, 1863, in the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, near Rome. Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (23 Sep 63BC-19 Aug AD14) was the first ruler of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from January 27BC until his death in AD14. Original currently in the collection of the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican, Rome, Italy.

Plaster cast of the Belvedere Apollo (also called Pythian Apollo)

This item was lost in the fire in The Mackintosh Building at The Glasgow School of Art on 15th June 2018.

Original: The Apollo is thought to be a Roman copy of Hadrianic date (120 - 140 BC) of a lost bronze original made between 350 and 325 BC by the Greek sculptor Leochares. Statue depicts the Greek god Apollo, who has just overtaken the serpent Python, the cthonic serpent of Delphi. Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery; medicine, healing and plague; music, poetry, and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. Listed in first catalogue of casts as Greco-Roman and from the Vatican Museum, and purchased from D. Brucciani. Original currently in the collection of the Vatican Museum, Rome, italy.

Plaster cast of Hebe

Original: Hebe was the Greek goddess of youth and a cup-bearer for the gods. Original currently in the collection of the Uffizi, Florence, Italy.

Plaster cast of Apollo Sauroctonos (Lizard Slayer)

  • PC/006
  • Item
  • Mid 19th century-early 20th century
  • Part of Plaster Casts

This item was lost in the fire in The Mackintosh Building at The Glasgow School of Art on 15th June 2018.

Original: This cast is of a 1st - 2nd century AD Roman marble copy of the Praxiteles original (Bronze, attributed by Pliny). It shows a nude adolescent male about to catch a lizard climbing up a tree. The left arm, the right hand and the lizard's head are modern restorations. It could indirectly refer to Apollo's fight against the serpent Python or, if the lizard is an attribute of the god, it could show Apollo in his purifying function, as a destroyer of plagues. Original currently in the collection of the Louvre, Paris, France.

Plaster cast of Canephora (Kanephoros)

  • PC/007
  • Item
  • Mid 19th century-early 20th century
  • Part of Plaster Casts

This item was lost in the fire in The Mackintosh Building at The Glasgow School of Art on 15th June 2018.

Original: Canephora was an honorific office given to unmarried young women in ancient Greece which involved the privilege of leading the procession to sacrifice at festivals.Translated as: "Basket Bearer". Original currently in the collection of the British Museum, London, UK.

Plaster cast of Charioteer of Delphi

  • PC/008
  • Item
  • Mid 19th century-early 20th century
  • Part of Plaster Casts

This item was lost in the fire in The Mackintosh Building at The Glasgow School of Art on 15th June 2018.

Original: The life-size bronze statue of a chariot driver was found in 1896 at the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi and is also known as Heniokhos, the rein-holder. The statue was erected at Delphi in 474BC, to commemorate the victory of a chariot team in the Pythean Games, which were held at Delphi every four years in honor of Pythean Apollo. Original currently in the collection of the Delphi Archaeological Museum, Greece.

Plaster cast of Standing Discobolus (Discophoros)

Original: Discovered in 1781 on Esquiline Hill. Considered to be a copy of an earlier Greek original. The popularity of the sculpture in antiquity was no doubt due to its representation of the athletic ideal. Discus-throwing was the first element in the pentathlon, and while pentathletes were in some ways considered inferior to those athletes who excelled at a particular sport, their physical appearance was much admired. This was because no one particular set of muscles was over-developed, with the result that their proportions were harmonious. Listed in the first catalogue of casts as Greek, located in Vatican and bought from Brucciani. Original currently in the collection of the Louvre, Paris, France.
Photographed in GSA 1915.

Plaster cast of Crouching Discobolos

This item was lost in the fire in The Mackintosh Building at The Glasgow School of Art on 15th June 2018.

Original: The Discobolus of Myron is a famous lost Greek bronze original that was completed towards the end of the Severe period, c460-450 BC. It is known through numerous Roman copies, both full-scale ones in marble, such as the first to be recovered, the Palombara Discobolus, or smaller scaled versions in bronze. Bought from Brucciani. Original currently in the collection of the British Museum, London, UK.

Plaster cast of Germanicus (Marcellus)

  • PC/011A
  • Item
  • Mid 19th century-early 20th century
  • Part of Plaster Casts

This item was lost in the fire in The Mackintosh Building at The Glasgow School of Art on 15th June 2018.

Original: The original scaled Roman statue of c50BC by the sculptor Kleomenes. The Nude male statue, erroneously identified as Germanicus, a member of the family of the Emperor Augustus, probably should be considered a portrait of a member of a wealthy family of the late Republic. Original currently in the collection of the Louvre, Paris, France.

Plaster cast of Germanicus (Marcellus)

  • PC/011B
  • Item
  • Mid 19th century-early 20th century
  • Part of Plaster Casts

This item was lost in the fire in The Mackintosh Building at The Glasgow School of Art on 15th June 2018.

Original: The original scaled Roman statue of c50BC by the sculptor Kleomenes. The Nude male statue, erroneously identified as Germanicus, a member of the family of the Emperor Augustus, probably should be considered a portrait of a member of a wealthy family of the late Republic. Original currently in the collection of the Louvre, Paris, France.

Plaster cast of Hermes of Praxiteles (Hermes and the Infant Dionysus)

  • PC/012
  • Item
  • Mid 19th century-early 20th century
  • Part of Plaster Casts

Original: Greek sculpture of Hermes and the infant Dionysus discovered in 1877 in the ruins of the Temple of Hera at Olympia. It is traditionally attributed to Praxiteles and dated to the 4th century BC. 3/4 size sculpture. Original currently in the collection of the Archaeological Museum of Olympia, Greece.

Plaster cast of Laocoon and his Sons

This item was lost in the fire in The Mackintosh Building at The Glasgow School of Art on 15th June 2018. All that remains is a fragment of a hand.

Original: This statue group was found in 1506 on the Esquiline Hill in Rome and immediately identified as the Laocoon described by Pliny the Elder as a masterpiece of the sculptors of Rhodes: Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus around 40-30 BC. It shows the Trojan priest Laocoon and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being strangled by sea serpents. In 1587 Giovanni Battista Armenini's treatise on painting and recommended all students to draw from the casts of the finest statues in Rome- 'the Laocoon, the Hercules, the Apollo, the Great Torso....' of the Belvedere. Listed in first catalogue as Greco-Roman and that the original is located in the Vatican. Original currently in the collection of the Vatican Museums, Rome, Italy.

This item was damaged in the fire in the Mackintosh Building on 23rd May 2014. It underwent conservation and consolidation work in 2016.

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