Casting model for an urn, Sandbeck Park - Special Thanks To: Moor, Baker & Associates Architects PA
Crouching Aphrodite - Special Thanks To: Louise K. Kaufman
Sleeping Ariadne
Discobulus
Bust of Demeter
Jacob and Esau from the Gates of Paradise
Head of Hesiod
Entablature from the Basilica of Santa Croce - Special Thanks To: Clem Labine
Scroll to browse highlights on view in the ICAA Cast Hall, including pieces deaccessioned from The Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as the Dick Reid Teaching Collection.
In 2004, the Metropolitan Museum of Art deaccessioned a historic collection of 120 plaster casts. The Metropolitan Museum of Art identified the ICAA as an appropriate steward of this significant collection due to the organization’s ongoing efforts to perpetuate the classical tradition in architecture and the related arts. The collection of plaster casts represents rare, high artistry in the craft of mold making and casting, and is an invaluable part of an education in traditional architecture and the allied arts. The ICAA uses the cast collection as a visual teaching aid, enabling students to view and draw from the finest examples of classical elements from masterpieces abroad.
Dick Reid was one of the world’s leading architectural artisans and restored numerous Medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment-era buildings in and outside of London, including the Somerset House, Windsor Castle, and the Spencer House. In 2005, Mr. Reid retired and donated the items in his shop, some of which are also visible on this page, to be used as a visual teaching aid for the ICAA.
The Plaster Cast Hall is possible thanks to the generous support of Flower Construction, Foster Reeve & Associates, and Seth Weine.
The ICAA would like to thank the following Cast Hall donors for their transformational support:
Peter Pennoyer Architects
Highlights of the plaster cast collection are on view in the ICAA’s Cast Hall by appointment. School groups are encouraged to visit and take advantage of our free programming that is tailored to each individual visiting group.
For educators interested in visiting the Cast Hall, click here to learn more about our Cast Hall programming and here to read descriptions of previous programs.
Please email [email protected] or call 212-730-9646 × 115 to arrange a visit and discuss our curriculum options.
Admission to view the collection is free. Please consider making a donation to support the collection and the ICAA's educational initiatives.
This is a cast of the Crouching Aphrodite (Venus de Vienne). It is a 19th Century plaster cast of a Roman copy of a statue by Daidalos of Bithynia, of the third century B.C. Aphrodite’s nude physique and voluptuous figure characterize her as the Greek goddess of love. First at Vienne, France, the original is presently at the Louvre Museum. On the rear of the pedestal is a brass impression with the name of the Louvre casting atelier and the number that identified it in the catalogue used to order plaster casts from the atelier: 834.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
43 x 20 x 27 in (HWD)
20 West 44th Street, New York, NY
The original from which this cast was made is a Roman marble of the 2nd century A.D., which was based on a Greek model of the 5th-4th centuries B.C. Today the Roman marble is in the Palazzo Altemps (Rome, Italy).
46 x 30 x 19 in. (HWD)
The marble from which this cast was made was carved in the 2nd century A.D. by a Roman sculptor. The marble was based on the lost Greek bronze statue of Hera by Polykleitos, made circa 420 B.C., which was displayed at the Temple of Hera outside of Argos. The version of Hera reproduced in this plaster cast is related to the that known as the “Farnese” Hera, which was once owned by the Farnese family, who amassed one of the richest Renaissance collections of antiquities. This cast was part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection, catalog number 592. It was likely purchased from Ceasare Malpieri in Rome as the Farnese Juno in 1892.
20 x 14 x 15 in. (HWD)
This plaster cast was made from a bronze sculpture of Hypnos, which was discovered near Perugia, Italy in 1868. When it was discovered, the bronze was thought to be Greek, but it is now understood to be a Roman version based on a Greek design. The Roman bronze is now in the British Museum. Hypnos is of the male god of sleep. Where the metal armature protruding from the proper right side of the cast is now, there was once a wing, one of Hypnos’ attributes. The color of the cast has degraded and faded, but once must have suggested a copper-rich bronze surface. Other 19th century-plaster casts of this work are owned by the Slater Museum in Norwich, Connecticut and Museum of Classical Archeology at Cambridge University (U.K.) All three of the plaster casts have the same circular base, which was provided by the caster Domenico Brucciani. The cast was purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art from Brucciani.
20 West 44th Street
The original from which this cast was made is a bronze full-length sculpture of a nude boxer from the Hellenistic period. The original is one of the finest examples of bronze casting to survive from the ancient world. The bronze was discovered in 1885 on the south slope of the Quirinal Hill in Rome. It is now part of the Museo Nazionale Romano- Massimo alle Terme. This plaster cast has been given a faux-bronze patina. The cast was purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Roman castmaker Michele Gherardi through Caroline Rosenkranz Vedder in 1892.