Finding Lost Wax: The Disappearance and Recovery of an Ancient Casting Technique and the Experiments of Medardo Rosso

This book is the first scholarly account of how lost wax casting was forgotten and rediscovered around the world thanks to transmission of know-how by Italian founders in the late nineteenth century. Against this backdrop, Medardo Rosso, an Italian sculptor living in Paris, overturned rules of the technique through creative approaches to serial reproduction. His unusual casts prefigured experiments in casting in the modern era. The volume includes art-historical essays by distinguished scholars on the revival of lost wax casting in different countries and a case study of Rosso’s Bambino ebreo series, including scientific analysis and conservation studies.

Podcast interview with Sharon Hecker about this book: #HumanitiesMatter - Remodeling a Lost Wax Technique: The Methods of Medardo Rosso (brill.com).