On the balcony walls of the Philadelphia Museum of Art west entrance are two 10.5 x 18.5 foot plaster maquettes by the 18th century French artist Joseph Deschamps depicting two scenes from Greek mythology, The Race Between Atalanta and Hippomenes and The Triumph of Flora. A maquette is an object made in preparation for a final or full-sized sculpture. It is often made from cheaper material such as plaster before the final sculpture is made in a more expensive material, in this case monumental marbles commissioned by Queen Marie Antoinette of France. The finished stone reliefs carved from these plaster maquettes were displayed in the queen’s state apartments. The marble reliefs were damaged during the Franco-Prussian war, but the plaster models, having been stored in an outbuilding, remained.

 

Working with objects conservators Adam Jenkins and Alisa Vignalo, I assisted in filling losses from previous removed fills with Polyfilla, a spackling material. We also inpainted losses with Golden acrylics. In the detail images above you can see a small section before and after treatment. The maquette had many many past treatment campaigns and vital conversations with the PMA curator centered around how much old restoration to keep to achieve the current treatment goals.