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Lost-wax castingalso called investment casting, precision casting, or cire perdue (; loanword from French language)is the process by which a duplicate sculpture (often a metal, such as silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is casting from an original sculpture. Intricate works can be achieved by this method.
The oldest known examples of this technique are approximately 6,500 years old (4550–4450 BC) and attributed to gold artefacts found at Bulgaria's Varna Necropolis. A copper amulet from Mehrgarh, Indus Valley civilization, in present-day Pakistan, is dated to circa 4,000 BC. Cast copper objects, found in the Nahal Mishmar hoard in southern Israel, which belong to the Chalcolithic period (4500–3500 BC), are estimated, from carbon-14 dating, to date to circa 3500 BC. Other examples from somewhat later periods are from Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC. Lost-wax casting was widespread in Europe until the 18th century, when a piece-moulding process came to predominate.
The steps used in casting small bronze sculptures are fairly standardized, though the process today varies from foundry to foundry (in modern industrial use, the process is called investment casting). Variations of the process include: "lost mould", which recognizes that materials other than wax can be used (such as tallow, resin, tar, and textile); and "waste wax process" (or "waste mould casting"), because the mould is destroyed to remove the cast item.
Prior to silica-based casting moulds, these moulds were made of a variety of other fire-proof materials, the most common being plaster based, with added grout, and clay based. Prior to rubber moulds gelatine was used.
The lost-wax process can be used with any material that can Combustion, Melting, or Evaporation to leave a mould cavity. Some automobile manufacturers use a lost-foam technique to make Cylinder block. The model is made of polystyrene foam, which is placed into a casting flask, consisting of a cope and drag, which is then filled with molding sand. The foam supports the sand, allowing shapes that would be impossible if the process had to rely on the sand alone. The metal is poured in, Vaporization the foam with its heat.
In dentistry, gold crowns, inlays and onlays are made by the lost-wax technique. Application of Lost Wax technique for the fabrication of cast inlay was first reported by Taggart. A typical gold alloy is about 60% gold and 28% silver with copper and other metals making up the rest. Careful attention to tooth preparation, impression taking and laboratory technique are required to make this type of restoration a success. Dental laboratories make other items this way as well.
Metal casting, by the Indus Valley civilization, produced some of the earliest known examples of lost-wax casting applied to the casting of copper alloys, a bronze figurine, found at Mohenjo-daro, and named the "dancing girl", is dated to 2300-1750 . Other examples include the buffalo, bull and dog found at Mohenjodaro and Harappa, two copper figures found at the Harappan site Lothal in the district of Ahmedabad of Gujarat, and likely a covered cart with wheels missing and a complete cart with a driver found at Chanhudaro.
During the post-Harappan period, hoards of copper and bronze implements made by the lost-wax process are known from Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. Gold and copper ornaments, apparently Hellenistic in style, made by cire perdue were found at the ruins at Sirkap. One example of this Indo-Greek art dates to the the juvenile figure of Harpocrates excavated at Taxila. Bronze were produced during the 3rd and 4th centuries, such as the Buddha image at Amaravati, and the images of Rama and Kartikeya in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. A further two bronze images of and a small hollow-cast bull came from Sahribahlol, Gandhara, and a standing Tirthankara () from Chausa in Bihar should be mentioned here as well. Other notable bronze figures and images have been found in Rupar, Mathura (in Uttar Pradesh) and Brahmapura, Maharashtra.
Gupta and post-Gupta period bronze figures have been recovered from the following sites: Sarnath, Mirpur-Khas (in Pakistan), Sirpur (District of Raipur), Balaighat (near Mahasthangarh now in Bangladesh), Akota (near Vadodara, Gujarat), Vasantagadh, Chhatari, Barmer and Chambi (in Rajasthan). The bronze casting technique and making of bronze images of traditional icons reached a high stage of development in South India during the medieval period. Although bronze images were modelled and cast during the Pallava Period in the eighth and ninth centuries, some of the most beautiful and exquisite statues were produced during the Chola Period in Tamil Nadu from the tenth to the twelfth century. The technique and art of fashioning bronze images is still skillfully practised in South India, particularly in Kumbakonam. The distinguished patron during the tenth century was the widowed Chola queen, Sembiyan Maha Devi. Chola bronzes are the most soughtafter collectors’ items by art lovers all over the world. The technique was used throughout India, as well as in the neighbouring countries Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Burma and Siam.
Direct imitations and local derivations of Oriental, Syro-Palestinian and Cyprus are found in Late Bronze Age Sardinia, with a local production of figurines from the 11th to 10th century BC. The cremation graves (mainly 8th-7th centuries BC, but continuing until the beginning of the 4th century) from the necropolis of Paularo (Italian Oriental Alps) contained fibulae, pendants and other copper-based objects that were made by the lost-wax process. Etruscan examples, such as the bronze Anthropomorphism handle from the Carlo Bocchi collection (National Archaeological Museum of Adria), dating back to the 6th to 5th centuries BC, were made by cire perdue. Most of the handles in the Bocchi collection, as well as some bronze vessels found in Adria (Rovigo, Italy) were made using the lost-wax technique. The better known lost-wax produced items from the classical world include the "Praying Boy" (in the Berlin Museum), the statue of Hera from Volci (Etruria), which, like most statues, was cast in several parts which were then joined.Neuburger, A., 1930. The Technical Arts and Sciences of the Ancients, London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. Geometric bronzes such as the four copper horses of San Marco (Venice, probably 2nd century) are other prime examples of statues cast in many parts.
Examples of works made using the lost-wax casting process in Ancient Greece largely are unavailable due to the common practice in later periods of melting down pieces to reuse their materials. Much of the evidence for these products come from . As underwater archaeology became feasible, artifacts lost to the sea became more accessible. Statues like the Artemision Bronze Zeus or Poseidon (found near Cape Artemision), as well as the Victorious Youth (found near Fano), are two such examples of Greek lost-wax bronze statuary that were discovered underwater.
Some Late Bronze Age sites in Cyprus have produced cast bronze figures of humans and animals. One example is the male figure found at Enkomi. Three objects from Cyprus (held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York) were cast by the lost-wax technique from the 13th and 12th centuries BC, namely, the rim, the rod tripod, and the cast tripod.
Other, earlier examples that show this assembly of lost-wax cast pieces include the bronze head of the Chatsworth Head and the bronze head of Aphrodite from Satala (Turkey) from the British Museum.; See also
Many bronze statues or parts of statues in antiquity were cast using the lost wax process. Theodorus of Samos is commonly associated with bronze casting.Pausania, Description of Greece 8.14.8 Pliny also mentions the use of lead, which is known to help molten bronze flow into all areas and parts of complex moulds. Quintilian documents the casting of statues in parts, whose moulds may have been produced by the lost wax process. Scenes on the early-5th century BC Berlin Foundry Cup depict the creation of bronze statuary working, probably by the indirect method of lost-wax casting.
In a 16th-century treatise, the Uttarabhaga of the Śilparatna written by Srïkumāra, verses 32 to 52 of Chapter 2 (" Linga Lakshanam"), give detailed instructions on making a hollow casting.
Southeast Asia
The inhabitants of Ban Na Di were casting bronze from to 200 AD, using the lost-wax technique to manufacture . Bangles made by the lost-wax process are characteristic of northeast Thailand. Some of the bangles from Ban Na Di revealed a dark grey substance between the central clay core and the metal, which on analysis was identified as an unrefined form of insect wax. It is likely that decorative items, like and rings, were made by cire perdue at Non Nok Tha and Ban Chiang. There are technological and material parallels between northeast Thailand and Vietnam concerning the lost-wax technique. The sites exhibiting artifacts made by the lost-mould process in Vietnam, such as the Dong Son drums, come from the Dong Son, and Phung Nguyen cultures, such as one sickle and the figure of a seated individual from Go Mun (near Phung Nguyen, the Bac Bo Region), dating to the Go Mun phase (end of the General B period, up until the 7th century BC).
West Africa
Cast bronzes are known to have been produced in Africa by the 9th century AD in Igboland (Igbo-Ukwu) in Nigeria, the 12th century AD in Yorubaland (Ife) and the 15th century AD in the Benin Bronzes. Some portrait heads remain.
Benin Bronzes mastered bronze during the 16th century, produced portraiture and reliefs in the metal using the lost wax process.Davidson, Basil (1971). African Kingdoms. New York: Time-Life Books, pp. 146(7).
Egypt
The Egyptians were practicing cire perdue from the mid 3rd millennium BC, shown by Early Dynastic bracelets and gold jewellery. Inserted spouts for (copper water vessels) from the Fourth Dynasty (Old Kingdom) were made by the lost-wax method.Ogden, J. (2000). Metals, in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, eds. P. T. Nicholson & I. Shaw Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hollow castings, such as the Louvre statuette from the Fayum find appeared during the Middle Kingdom, followed by solid cast statuettes (like the squatting, Breastfeeding mother, in Brooklyn) of the Second Intermediate/Early New Kingdom. The hollow casting of statues is represented in the New Kingdom by the kneeling statue of Tuthmosis IV (British Museum, London) and the head fragment of Ramesses V (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge). Hollow castings become more detailed and continue into the Eighteenth Dynasty, shown by the black bronze kneeling figure of Tutankhamun (Museum of the University of Pennsylvania). Cire Perdue is used in Mass production during the Late Period to Ptolemaic Egypt-Roman times when figures of Deity were cast for personal worship and Votive offering. Nudity woman handles on bronze were cast by the lost-wax process.
Mediterranean
The lost-wax technique came to be known in the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. It was a major metalworking technique utilized in the ancient Mediterranean world, notably during the Classical period of Greece for large-scale Bronze sculpture and in Roman Empire.
East Asia
There is great variability in the use of the lost-wax method in East Asia. The casting method to make bronzes till the early phase of Eastern Zhou (770-256 ) was almost invariably section-mold process. Starting from around 600 , there was an unmistakable rise of lost-wax casting in the central plains of China, first witnessed in the Chu cultural sphere.
Further investigations have revealed this not to be the case as it is clear that the piece-mould casting method was the principal technique used to manufacture bronze vessels in China. The lost-wax technique did not appear in northern China until the 6th century BC. Lost-wax casting is known as rōgata in Japanese, and dates back to the Yayoi period, . The most famous piece made by cire perdue is the bronze image of Buddha in the temple of the Todaiji monastery at Nara. It was made in sections between 743 and 749, allegedly using seven tons of wax.
Northern Europe
The Dunaverney (1050–910 BC) and Little Thetford (1000–701 BC) flesh-hooks have been shown to be made using a lost-wax process. The Little Thetford flesh-hook, in particular, employed distinctly inventive construction methods. The intricate Gloucester Candlestick (1104–1113 AD) was made as a single-piece wax model, then given a complex system of gates and vents before being invested in a mould.
Americas
The lost-wax casting tradition was developed by the peoples of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, northwest Venezuela, Andean America, and the western portion of South America. Lost-wax casting produced some of the region's typical gold wire and delicate wire ornament, such as fine ear ornaments. The process was employed in prehispanic times in Colombia's Muisca people and Sinú cultural areas. Two lost-wax moulds, one complete and one partially broken, were found in a shaft and chamber tomb in the vereda of Pueblo Tapado in the municipio of Montenegro (Department of Quindío), dated roughly to the pre-Columbian period. The lost-wax method did not appear in Mexico until the 10th century,Hodges, H., 1970. Technology in the Ancient World, London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press. and was thereafter used in western Mexico to make a wide range of bell forms.
Literary history
Indirect evidence
Some early Literature allude to lost-wax casting. Columella, a Ancient Rome writer of the 1st century AD, mentions the processing of wax from in De Re Rustica, perhaps for casting, as does Pliny the Elder, who details a sophisticated procedure for making Punic wax. One Greeks Epigraphy refers to the payment of craftsmen for their work on the Erechtheum in Athens (408/7–407/6 BC). Clay-modellers may use clay moulds to make terracotta negatives for casting or to produce wax positives. Pliny portrays as a well-reputed ancient artist producing bronze statues,Jex-Blake, K. & E. Sellers, 1967. The Elder Pliny's Chapters on The History of Art., Chicago: Ares Publishers, Inc. and describes Lysistratos of Sikyon, who takes plaster casts from living to create wax casts using the indirect process.
Direct evidence
India
The lost-wax method is well documented in ancient Indian literary sources. The Shilpa Shastras, a text from the Gupta Empire (–550 AD), contains detailed information about casting images in metal. The 5th-century AD Vishnusamhita, an appendix to the Vishnu Purana, refers directly to the modeling of wax for making metal objects in chapter XIV: "if an image is to be made of metal, it must first be made of wax." Chapter 68 of the ancient Sanskrit text Mānasāra Silpa details casting Cult image in wax and is entitled Maduchchhista Vidhānam, or the "lost wax method". The 12th century text Mānasollāsa, allegedly written by King Someshvara III of the Western Chalukya Empire, also provides detail about lost-wax and other casting processes.
Theophilus
An early medieval writer Theophilus Presbyter, believed to be the Benedictine monk and metalworker Roger of Helmarshausen, wrote a treatise in the early-to-mid-12th century that includes original work and copied information from other sources, such as the Mappae clavicula and Eraclius, De dolorous et artibus Romanorum. It provides step-by-step procedures for making various articles, some by lost-wax casting: "The Copper Wind Chest and Its Conductor" (Chapter 84); "Tin Cruets" (Chapter 88), and "Casting Bells" (Chapter 85), which call for using "tallow" instead of wax; and "The Cast Censer". In Chapters 86 and 87 Theophilus details how to divide the wax into differing before moulding and casting to achieve accurately tuned small musical bells. The 16th-century Florentine sculptor Benvenuto Cellini may have used Theophilus' writings when he cast his bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa.
America
The Spanish writer Releigh (1596) in brief account refers to Aztec casting.
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