What's the Point?
Find out about the nineteenth-century technique of "pointing" in this Amazing Art Fact.
What's the Point? Find out about the nineteenth-century technique of "pointing" in this Amazing Art Fact.
What are those metal "points" on the plaster sculpture of Thomas Jefferson? Many nineteenth-century artists, like Hiram Powers, used a mechanical process called "pointing" to reproduce their sculptures in marble. First they created a clay model and then made a more durable plaster cast. Small metal rods (the "points" you see on these sculptures) were pressed into the high and low surfaces of the plaster model. These "points" were used as guides for carving the marble version.
Most sculptors turned over the transfer into marble to an expert stone carver. The carver set up a metal framework around the original plaster model in a shape that matched the dimensions of the marble block to be carved. By measuring the distance from the metal frame to the "points" on the plaster model, the carver knew how far to drill into the marble block at comparable positions. The excess marble between the drilled holes was cut away to reveal the rough form of the statue. A master carver removed the final eighth of an inch of stone and polished it to match the surface on the plaster original.
This process could be repeated to produce perfect copies of the original plaster as often as the sculptor wished. Because the points in the plaster were metal, the plaster original was not damaged by repeated "pointing."
Pictured top: Hiram Powers (1805 USA–1873 Italy), Thomas Jefferson,modeled 1860–62, plaster, 76 7/8 x 24 5/8 x 16 5/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson.
Source: Pamela Potter Hennessy. Permanent Gallery Installation (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).
Pictured bottom: Detail showing "points"