Cast in Bronze was co-organized by our very own Getty Museum (represent!), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Musee du Louvre, Paris.  This show has enough street cred to start its own record company/lifestyle clothing line/cologne due to these three institutions’ collaboration and over thirty years of research by the French Bronze Study Group.

Cast in Bronze showcases a comprehensive collection of French bronze sculpture created from the Renaissance until the end of the monarchy during the French Revolution in 1792. You’ll see a lot of classical allegories, portraits, and horses, but you’ll also appreciate the high amount of skill necessary to make bronze statues seem alive. Let me tell you, it is really hard to make lifelike hair…and drapery…and hands… you get the picture.  Both large, monumental statues and smaller, more domestically orientated bronze works were the pride of the nation and stylistically became the standard for most European countries.

And in case you were looking to make a bronze statue of a loved one or even yourself, be sure to check out an accompanying exhibition Foundry to Finish: The Making of a Bronze Sculpture – a show featuring step-by-step models of the lost-wax method and radiographs (score!). 

Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution is on view at the Getty Museum until September 27, 2009.  For more information, please call (310) 440-7300 or click here. 

Image: Winter, Philippe Bertrand, late 1600s – early 1700s, bronze, ~19″ high.  The Royal Collection — Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II