cire perdue

cire perdue [Fr.,=lost wax], sculptural process of metal casting that may be used for hollow and solid casting. The sculptor makes a model in plaster or clay that is then coated with wax. This model is then covered with a perforated plaster or clay mold. When heated, the mold will "lose" the wax (hence the name of the method) as it runs out of the holes in the plaster. Molten lead is then poured into the space formerly occupied by the wax. After the work cools, the sculptor breaks the mold, removes the plaster core, and files or polishes the metal product. One can also make hollow sculptures by piece-casting, which, as its name suggests, involves the construction of a work in pieces rather than as a whole. The most important advantage of the lost-wax method is that it eases the casting of a sculpture with elaborate curves. This method also has considerable disadvantages, such as the loss of the wax "original" and the failure of rapidly cooling molten metal to fill all of the space left by the removed wax. Donatello's David was made by the lost-wax method and, as a result, is full of patches. This method has been used for centuries in the great civilizations of Mesopotamia, Africa, China, and Greece.

Bibliography: See G. Pack, Jewelry Making by the Lost Wax Process (1968); H. Jackson, Lost Wax Bronze Casting (1972).

cire perdue (Fr. ‘lost wax’) Method of casting metal objects (usually bronzes) used since classical antiquity. First the object is covered in wax then covered in a heat-proof mould. When heated, the wax melts away and the metal is poured into the space it occupied.

cire perdue (Fr.: ‘lost wax’). A method of making cast metal sculpture. In essence the technique involves producing a model of the sculpture consisting of a thin layer of wax over a heat-resistant core of clay or plaster; the wax is then covered with another heat-resistant layer, and when the wax is melted and drained off, molten metal is poured into the cavity that the ‘lost wax’ has created. The technique, developed independently in every continent except Australasia, was used by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans and is still the main means of casting used for traditional bronze sculpture. Casting sculptures of any size is an industrial process requiring great expertise, and there is a celebrated account in Cellini's autobiography of the difficulties he encountered (and heroically overcame) with his statue of Perseus.