Our art department has a plaster cast of the Venus de Milo from the 1880s, and they are in the process of trying to find the history of where it originated. The sculpture has a restored left foot, but no markings which would provide clues which company made it. It was thought the sculpture may have originated from the Caproni company in Boston, but with no markings that seems unlikely. The professor who gave the sculpture to the art department used it for teaching, and he did visit Italy during the 1880s, so he may have purchased the sculpture there. We've looked through his letters and the diaries of his sisters, but no clues there, either.
There are probably no definitive answers, but I thought I would ask those of you with expertise in this area or knowledge of special collections of plaster reproduction catalogs. I've found an article and a book by McNutt in which he discusses plaster casts and education. I've tried looking for mail order catalogues (found the 1911 Caproni catalog on the Guist Gallery site, but that appears to have no left foot reconstructed), tried to find information about how art schools acquired plaster casts of ancient sculpture to use in teaching, and tried to find names of Italian companies that would have made plaster casts during the 1880s-early 1890s, but with no luck. What were the companies and/or catalogs that American art schools would have used to order plaster casts? Are there names of Italian plaster casting companies from the 19th century available?
Thanks for any help you can give me. Please respond off list.
Peggy Keeran
Arts and Humanities Reference Librarian
Penrose Library
University of Denver
2150 E. Evans Avenue
Denver, CO 80208
Voice: 303-871-3410
Fax: 303-871-3446
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