Casting a New Light

The museum’s latest publication, a conference volume in English entitled Casting a New Light. Plaster Casts & Cast Collections in Europe and Beyond has been published.

This volume publishes the papers of the international conference Plaster Casts & Cast Collections across Europe: History and Future, held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest on 24 May 2022.

The conference was organised in celebration of the refurbishment of the plaster cast collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, and its exhibition in the Star Fortress in Komárom, opened in the autumn of 2021, and in the visible storage in the newly built National Museum Conservation and Storage Centre in Budapest, the installation of which was finished in 2022.

Featuring a collection of papers, including several case studies, the volume delves into various aspects of collecting and showcasing plaster casts, an important phenomenon that shaped European and American art museums from the nineteenth century onwards. It explores international connections and influences in the establishment of cast collections while also shedding new light on the role and uses of plaster casts in the antiquity and in the era of historicism. Moreover, the volume offers valuable reflections on the intricate contexts of the contemporary reception of these collections, presenting new perspectives on their significance and future.

The authors of the volume are Eckart Marchand, Miriam Szőcs, Flavia Berizzi, Jean-Marc Hofman, Géza Andó, Eszter Süvegh, Eszter Hajós-Baku, Beáta Szűts, Júlia Katona, Rune Frederiksen, Lorenz Winkler-Horaček and Marjorie (Holly) Trusted.

The book is available for purchase in the MúzeumShop.

Contents

Casting a New Light. Plaster Casts & Cast Collections in Europe and Beyond, Edited by Miriam Szőcs and Márton Tóth, Budapest, 2024.

• Eckart Marchand, “‘The best laid schemes’ …: The Politics of the Universal Museum and the Vicissitudes of their Plaster Cast Collections at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”
• Miriam Szőcs, “The Colleoni Monument and the Medici Tombs: Monumental Renaissance Casts in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest”
• Flavia Berizzi, “From Northern Italy to Hungary: Medieval and Renaissance Monumental Casts from the Museo Campi Carlo in Milan to the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest”
• Jean-Marc Hofman, “Generation and Regeneration of the Cast Collections of the Musée de Sculpture Comparée, Paris”
• Géza Andó and Eszter Süvegh, “The Ways of the Casts: Plaster Casts of Antiquities in Budapest and Kolozsvár (today Cluj-Napoca, Romania)”
• Eszter Hajós-Baku and Beáta Szűts, “A Brief History of the Plaster Cast Collection of the Department of Graphics, Form, and Design at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics”
• Júlia Katona, “Nineteenth-Century Constructions and Monument Reconstruction in Hungary in the Context of Educational Plaster Cast Collections: A Case Study with Special Focus on the Romanesque Hall of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest”
• Rune Frederiksen, “The Role of Ancient Plaster Casts in Ancient Art: The Written Evidence”
• Lorenz Winkler-Horaček, “Appreciation and Rejection: Plaster Casts in the Discourse of Copy and Original. With an Excursus on the Sleeping Ariadne in the Berlin Cast Collection”
• Marjorie (Holly) Trusted, “The Making and Meaning of Plaster Casts in the Nineteenth Century: Their Future in the Twenty-First Century”