Matters control

With the exception of very few sculptors, achieving only their own works, the problem of artists is the transposition of projects, created mostly in drawings or clay and plaster models, in materials technically more sophisticated, requiring the intervention of specialised craftsmen.

The final creation of a sculpture requires, therefore, the intervention of technicians who possess the virtuosity of the material chosen as marble, metal, wood, glass, gold, bronze…

The sculpture is an art that requires an intimate relationship artist-craftsman and craftsman-artist, far from being reducing, is a phase of emulation and exchange that sublimates the work in relation to the materials used.

As an example, most of the marble sculptures were made by specialized workshops at Carrara including Carlo Nicoli’s which, among other master pieces, produced the famous six metres high thumb of César in marble, metal sculptures by ironwork ateliers, as those who transcribed those of Picasso, Calder or Indiana, bronze sculptures, including those of Max Ernst, bronze-smelter copying, enlarging and running models often in clay or plaster.

The final sculpture, whether single or serial, in one or several formats, is almost always a work between artists and craftsmen, imposing a total osmosis.

The craftsman becomes a kind of ""Deus ex machina"" reflecting the soul of the artist.

The dominant logic of the reputation of the artist has often erased the role of these craftsmen, limiting their role to a technical performance, whereas in most cases their intervention is artistically complementary, like that of a conductor sublimating a musical composition.