A plaster portrait relief of “Lucretia”

Domenico Brucciani (1815-1880) was born in Lucca (now in Italy), moved to London as a young man, and by at least 1837, with a Gallery of Casts in Covent Garden, became a revered formatore – plaster-caster. His business built up special links with both the British Museum and the South Kensington Museum (later named The V&A). His most substantial commission for the South Kensington Museum was the casting of the Pórtico de la Gloria, the 12th-century façade of the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela, in 1866. This huge undertaking – and many others – followed the agreement forged by Henry Cole and Prince Albert at the Paris Exposition of the previous year, signed by all the Crowned Princes of Europe, to further the common man’s experience of sculpture in-the-round by the reciprocal casting of great European sculpture. What followed was the Cast Courts at prestigious museums across Europe and beyond; Brucciani was foremost among the formatore. He taught sculpture, moulding and casting at the Royal College of Art (including National Art Training School) from 1853 to 1861. His company, D Brucciani & Co, with workshops in Clerkenwell, survived its founder with the Covent Garden outlet still operating into Edwardian times. A catalogue of their wares is held at The National Art library. However, by the turn of the century, the direct casting of priceless sculpture was being frowned upon – travel across Europe was now much easier anyway – the common man could now use the train. The company faltered. In the 1920’s its casting workshops were subsumed by the Victoria & Albert Museum. LASSCO is delighted to have saved a number of the original piece-moulds and to have cast from them for the first time in a century. The making of piece-moulds – a plaster negative jigsaw enabling a cast to be released by the careful removal of the solid mould in pieces – is a lost art and today rendered redundant by pliant silicons. We have duly made a silicon mould in order to preserve Brucciani’s work. The accuracy and detail of the resulting casts, taken as they are directly from Verrocchio’s original carving is plain to see, and a delight. Andrea del Verrocchio (c.1435–1488) was a renowned for his versatility as a sculptor, painter, and teacher. Born in Florence as Andrea di Michele di Francesco de’ Cioni, he trained in goldsmithing before turning to painting and sculpture, becoming one of the leading figures in Lorenzo de’ Medici’s artistic circle. Verrocchio’s workshop was among the most prestigious in Florence, producing several of the era’s greatest artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Pietro Perugino. His notable works include the bronze “David”, the equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice, and the collaborative painting “The Baptism of Christ”, where Leonardo’s contribution reveals his emerging genius. In this plaque the influence of Desiderio da Settignano is descernible – a master of portraiture and particularly in low-relief. Lucretia  – the subject of the plaque, is a figure associated with piety, chastity and having died around 508BC is remembered as the catalyst behind Rome abandoning its monarchy and becoming a Republic. Her full story is found here.

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