Roman sculpture of the late republic and empire is characterized by wide-ranging practices of formal imitation and replication of earlier figurative traditions, particularly those of the Hellenized Eastern Mediterranean. Works that exhibit this retrospective character may be replicas of famous statues, adaptations of familiar compositions, or inventive creations based on established styles and features. The links of subject and style that these works created in the Roman context engendered systems of mutual reference and evaluation that helped articulate the socio-political, ideological, religious, and other aims of the representations. As sculptural types or even loosely related images were produced in a rich variety of materials, their proliferation enmeshed bronze, marble, colored stones, terracotta, and plaster into formal, technical, visual, and historical relationships. This dissertation investigates the materials of Roman sculpture as both agents and products of a transformative reception of earlier local and foreign traditions. The inquiry focuses on the nexus of Roman formal replication and material manipulation, investigating diverse choices of material and technique against the common background of a type’s subject, style, composition, and deployment in the Roman world. The project’s focus is circumscribed around sculptural types whose large-scale replicas are extant in more than one material; the survey in Chapter 2 is intentionally broad and includes replicas of famous Greek works, Idealplastik, and works related to Egyptian archetypes, as well as the large-scale, positive plaster casts from Baia. In this way, it sets out on a broad investigation of the nature of the reception of media practices in Roman sculpture, studying technical processes as much as formal connections and treating the reproductive interest in Greek, Egyptian, and even recently invented forms as complementary parts of a single retrospective approach to sculpture. This project proposes a methodology for investigating historically contextualized materialities that marries the approaches of historical reception, reception aesthetics, and remediation. The case studies apply this methodology in a four-part examination of Roman contexts of material reception, including production, display, and recontextualization. These chapters articulate the impact of techniques of formal reproduction on material selection and manipulation, assess the relevance of the medium of the formal archetype, demonstrate the plurality of contextualized material relationships that constitute materiality, clarify the nature of material mimesis as a selective and partial illusion, account for changing tastes in material decorum, and highlight ongoing engagement with the materiality of physically present antiques. The project illustrates that the Roman material context within which the selection, manipulation, and evaluation of sculptural materials must be situated is predicated upon both simple and sophisticated engagements with historical material traditions, both local and exotic. It shows that investigating the ways in which material traditions were available for reception in the Roman world – by the dissemination of plaster casts or by the importation of antiques, whose surfaces might be altered by age or later intervention – can reveal scholarly misconceptions and can realign modern interpretations with ancient practices. Engaging with the multiple, co-existing relationships that define a work’s materiality, this dissertation suggests that this plurality of references could be valued in much the same way that the recombination of distinct period styles could articulate new meanings in a Roman context. In the process of tracing these numerous material relationships, this dissertation’s analyses point to further avenues of research, indicating the relevance of Egyptian and North African material traditions for Roman uses of colored stones, calling attention to sophisticated engagements with issues of representation, and demonstrating that lack of coherence (in material references and in display) could be exploited as a means of enriching artworks that were conservative in their form and subject matter.

M.Tech. / My research investigates how modularity, repetition and material choices are employed as strategies in the work of selected South African sculptors, Willem Boshoff, Paul Edmunds and Alan Alborough. My argument is that these three strategies are purposefully used by the artists in the construction of their sculpture and that they create the intrinsic meaning of the works. Self-reflexivity is a major focus of this study that is central to the construction of intrinsic meaning embodied in each of the aforementioned strategies. I postulate that an obsessive focus characterises the repetition of modular materials in the production of the works. Obsessive focus is highlighted as a positive characteristic that enhances the reading of the work and is a direct result of the methodology employed by the artists. I analyse how each of the strategies manifests itself in specific works by these artists and how precursors can be found for the strategies in works by other local and international artists, particularly Tom Friedman, Tara Donovan, Tony Cragg and David Mach. This context allows for the close visual analysis of selected works within a postmodern paradigm. I acknowledge extrinsic readings of works as relevant to analysis of the works but focus my investigation on the intrinsic meanings generated by the three strategies. Once these strategies have been investigated, I am able to determine 2ow I deploy these strategies in my own work. This necessitates an explication of my practice through a close visual analysis.

La cascarilla cerámica es un material que se emplea principalmente para la realización de moldes en fundición. Esta investigación demuestra que la cascarilla cerámica puede ser empleada para la realización de escultura con una definición excepcional en su acabado. La investigación ha permitido identificar una serie de ventajas que presenta el material para afrontar las dificultades de un artista durante la realización de una escultura. La investigación se ha desarrollado en cinco etapas: En la primera etapa se recogió información sobre la cascarilla como material de proceso. Este fue el punto de partida para la investigación. En la segunda etapa se estableció la composición adecuada de la papilla, tanto en porcentajes como en tipo de aglutinante, y la curva de cocción. Para ello, se valoró sus características para la aplicación, el espesor, el secado, la resistencia mecánica, el coeficiente de reducción y la porosidad. En la tercera etapa se verificó que la cascarilla se adapta a todo tipo de materiales que ejercen de soporte. Se comprobó también que la papilla puede ser empleada con distintos procedimientos escultóricos: modelado, moldeado mediante molde de silicona o escayola, encofrado, con armazón metálico interno, etc. Además se establecieron métodos para reparar y modificar la cascarilla mediante herramientas manuales y eléctricas. En la cuarta etapa hemos comprobado distintas maneras de modificar la superficie de la cascarilla mediante otro tipo de minerales que no afectan la estructura: introducción de limadura de cobre, bronce y hierro en la papilla cerámica, distintos procedimiento de coloración en frío o caliente, mediante esmalte, engobe, etc. En la quinta etapa se realizaron esculturas empleando los métodos que se establecieron en las etapas anteriores, para verificar dicha hipótesis. / The ceramic shell is a material mainly used for making foundry molds. This research demonstrates that ceramic shell can be used for making sculptures with exceptional definition in its finish. The research has identified a number of advantages of the material to meet the challenges of an artist during the making of a sculpture. The research has been developed in five stages: In the first stage data were collected from the chaff as the process material. This was the starting point for research. In the second stage, we have set the appropriate composition of the slurry, both in percentage and type of binder, and firing curve. To this end, we evaluated the application characteristics, thickness, drying, mechanical strength, the reduction coefficient and porosity. In the third stage it was observed that the husk is suitable for all types of materials acting as support. It was also found that the slurry can be used with various sculptural processes: modeling, molding using silicone or plaster mold, shuttering, with internal metal frame, and so on. In addition, we have established methods to repair and modify the husk by hand and power tools. In the fourth stage we have found ways to modify the surface of the husk with other minerals that affect the structure: introduction of filing of copper, bronze and iron in the slurry ceramics, different staining procedure in hot or cold, by enamel slip, and so on. In the fifth stage sculptures were made using the methods established in the previous stages, to verify this hypothesis.