Development of Technological Styles to Produce Monumental Equestrian Sculptures

Research article Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2025 JANUARY-JUNE 2025 OJS Índice / Contents Development of Technological Styles to Produce Monumental Equestrian Sculptures Ir a la versión en español DOI: 10.30763/Intervencion.310.v1n31.89.2025 • YEAR 16, ISSUE NO. 31: 77-105 Submitted: 01.31.2024 • Accepted: 02.24.2025 • Published: 01.07.2025 Jannen Contreras Vargas Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía (encrym), Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (inah), México | orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6083-4985 Translated by Paola Salinas ABSTRACT Based on archival information, historiographic sources, bibliography, and characterizations carried out in professional conservation projects —in particular, El Ca ballito, by sculptor and architect Manuel Tolsá— this article examines the evolution of the technological styles used in the production of monumental equestrian sculptures made of copper alloys using the lost-wax casting technique in the Western world, from the Renaissance to the 19th century. It analyzes the origins of lost wax, piece molding, and the consolidation of the single-casting technique as the dominant technological style (1699 to early 19th century). It also briefly looks at the introduction of assembled production in Mexico and the United States, and the development of welding during the 19th century. It aims to avoid mistaken assumptions that may compromise the evaluation, historical interpretation, and decision-making related to the conservation and restoration of these sculptures. KEYWORDS technological style, casting, equestrian sculpture, lost wax, Tolsá Photography: Blanca Cárdenas, 2019; courtesy: Nara Palace Site Historical Park, Heijokyu Izanaikan Guidance Center, Showroom 3. Development of technological styles to produce monumental equestrian sculptures CONVOCATORIA 2025 CALL FOR PAPERS 2025 77 Research article Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2025 JANUARY-JUNE 2025 OJS Índice / Contents Photography: Blanca Cárdenas, 2019; courtesy: Nara Palace Site Historical Park, Heijokyu Izanaikan Guidance Center, Showroom 3. INTRODUCTION hanks to their large scale and location in public spaces, monumental equestrian sculptures are integrated into the urban landscape and collective memory, conveying leadership and power. The fact that they are made of copper alloys reinforces their permanence and reflects the mastery of those who, throughout history, specialized in sculpture and casting. Lack of knowledge regarding the production technique has led to errors when interpreting sculptural casting; as when it was claimed that El Caballito, a sculpture created between 1796 and 1803 by sculptor and architect Manuel Tolsá (1755-1816) and located today in the eponymous square of Mexico City’s Historic Center, was created in parts, and then assembled and welded together (Delgado, in Ventura, March 21, 2016; Noticieros Televisa, January 23, 2016). This contradicted what had been maintained for more than two centuries —and even stated on the marble plaque on its pedestal—: the work was cast in a single operation (Gazeta de México, September 17, 1802; Uribe, 1990; Salazar, 1999). The interdisciplinary team of the inah, in charge of its conservation between 2016 and 2017, verified through material analyses based on knowledge of the technology’s history that, indeed, the rider and horse were achieved in a single casting (inah, 2017; Contreras, 2021; Contreras & García, 2022). This text seeks to provide information that contributes to understanding monumental equestrian sculpture made of copper alloys. By analyzing technological styles —modes of production considered appropriate in their temporal and cultural contexts— it examines the evolution of lost-wax casting in the West, from the Renaissance to the 19th century,1 a period on which we have limited availability of information compared to contemporary monumental sculpture. It begins by describing the methodology and conceptual tools of the anthropology of technology utilized to analyze the production of monumental equestrian sculptures. Then, based on case studies, documentary information, and material characterizations from restoration projects, it analyzes the origins of the technique, from the production in separate parts to the consolidation of single casting as the dominant technological style between 1699 and early 19th century, briefly addressing the beginning of assembled production in Mexico and the United States and the emergence of welding in the 19th century. T Most of this article stems from the thesis work Metodología para la construcción de decisiones de restauración (Contreras, 2021). 1 Development of technological styles to produce monumental equestrian sculptures CONVOCATORIA 2025 CALL FOR PAPERS 2025 78 Research article Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2025 JANUARY-JUNE 2025 OJS Índice / Contents Photography: Blanca Cárdenas, 2019; courtesy: Nara Palace Site Historical Park, Heijokyu Izanaikan Guidance Center, Showroom 3. Its purpose is to avoid mistaken assumptions that may compromise the evaluation, historical interpretation, and decision-making related to conservation. METHODOLOGY This research emerged seeking to understand the production of monumental equestrian sculptures made of copper alloys, based on the analysis performed for El Caballito; in this inquiry, conceptual tools of the anthropology of technology were used to analyze sculptural production in its context and recognize innovation, specialization, labor organization, and economy associated with it.2 The first of these concepts was technological choices, understood as a response to what is materially possible and socially desirable in a specific time and space (Schulze, 2008, p. 68), in such a way that tradition, experience, and physical and cultural contexts were the drivers of such decisions (Lemonnier, 1993, p. 3; Sillar and Tite, 2000, p. 9). To understand production, the operational sequence (chaîne opératoire) was also analyzed. This is a heuristic tool that helps to deconstruct the sequence of activities necessary to transform the raw material into the finished product. Studying it reveals patterns in production at different times and places, making it easier to identify technological similarities (Cresswell, 1976, p. 6; Schulze, 2008). The last concept, technological style, helped to explore how a human group conceives, produces, and uses objects according to their practices and representations (Lemonnier, 2011, p. 299). Defined as the “way of making” particular to an era and context, it is influenced by the habitus, understood as the set of socially acquired provisions that structure social life (Bourdieu, 1977; Sanhueza, 2006). Unlike the concept of style, used for the typological and temporal classification of objects, technological style emphasizes the choice among equally viable options, generating isocrestic variations t (...truncated)