The RMN’s casting workshop
The casting workshop:
A collection unique in the world
The entire history of sculpture
The guardian of a royal and then national heritage, the RMN’s casting workshop has, for 200 years, been bringing back to life the greatest masterpieces in the history of creativity. These reproductions of the most famous works in the world are still manufactured today using original processes combining the requirements of tradition and the excellence of modernity.
The collection of moulds owned by the workshop traces the entire history of sculpture, from Antiquity to the present day. With more than 4000 models, it illustrates prehistoric art and the ancient Eastern, Egyptian, Greek and Roman, Etruscan and Gallo-Roman civilizations. For the modern period, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, this collection includes masterpieces from the French, Italian, English, American and Northern European schools.
An exceptional tradition: more than 200 years of expertise
Since the Renaissance, the tradition of casting has enhanced artistic teaching and enables the dissemination of the great classics of Western art. Sovereigns, patrons, art lovers and artists crowded around faithful reproductions of “antiques”, universal artistic models borrowed from Greek and Roman sculptures.
Francis I began this tradition at the French court in Fontainebleau in the 16th century. He ordered a significant number of impressions from Italy in order to provide court artists with a lesson from the great masters. These “historic” moulds were the first in a long collection, which their successors would enhance up until the French Revolution.
During the reign of Louis XIV, the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture disseminated aesthetic thought and learning using moulds of the greatest Classical masterpieces against which generations of artists measured their taste and their talent.
In 1794, the Louvre casting workshop was officially founded to preserve this precious heritage. Unique in Europe, its role was to distribute models and art lessons “for the benefit of the people and of artists”.
In the 19th century, due to their appeal a wider public of art lovers seized upon models of “high taste” for more ornamental purposes.
Since 1895, the workshop and conservation of its collections have been entrusted to the RMN, to serve the passion of all art lovers with the same high standards.
A craft
Reproduction of a sculpture requires great control and painstaking care. Conservation and restoration of moulds, handling of originals, taking of new impressions, digital storage and manufacture of models, reproduction, finishing: this excellence of team work and techniques ensures high quality results, with respect for the works.
The team comprises statuary-moulders, who are qualified artists. Their experience of the taking of impressions and working with moulds and their knowledge of the original works give the casting workshop a particular expertise.
Working alongside moulders, a team is dedicated to the expert production of finishes.
Shop and information
Atelier de moulage de la Réunion des musées nationaux
1, impasse du Pilier
1, rue des Blés
93217 La Plaine Saint-Denis
Tel: +33 (0)1 49 46 25 60
Fax: +33 (0)1 49 46 95 34
RER B La Plaine - Stade de France
The shop is open from Monday to Friday,
from 9.30am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 5.30pm.
Tel.: +33 (0)1 49 46 25 71
The Louvre Chalcography
The workshop of La Chalcographie de la Réunion des musées nationaux works with a collection of more than 13 000 engraved plates, most of them in copper. The word chalcography comes from the Greek khalkos meaning: copper and graphein meaning: to write.
The original copper plates produced by some of the finest artists since XVIth century belong to the Cabinet des Arts Graphiques of the Louvre Museum.
The Chalcography was founded in 1797 based on the assembled collections put together under the Ancien Régime. The most important copper plates among them came from the Cabinet of Engraved Plates of the King, established by Colbert, and the archives of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
The Chalcography’s collections have constantly been enriched over the centuries. Since it was founded in 1895, the RMN has distributed and sold prints produced from original copper plates on the workshop’s presses.
Since 1990, the RMN has pursued a policy of commissioning living artists, thereby assuring the Chalcography a place in contemporary art.
Information:
1, impasse du Pilier
(1 rue des Blés)
93217 La Plaine Saint-Denis cedex
RER B La Plaine - Stade de France
