Maquette

A small preparatory model for a sculpture or monument, made to test a design or win a commission, and often valued in its own right.

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About

Sculptors have long worked out ideas at a small scale before committing to marble or bronze. Italian practice distinguished the quick, rough bozzetto from the more resolved modello shown to a patron. Gian Lorenzo Bernini's terracotta sketches for the angels of the Ponte Sant'Angelo keep the marks of his fingers and tools, recording decisions later hidden under polished stone. Clay and wax were cheap and forgiving, and plaster versions could be enlarged mechanically with pointing devices.

For monuments the model was also a way to persuade. Auguste Rodin made many small studies for The Burghers of Calais (1884–89), trying the figures nude and clothed, grouped and apart. In the 20th century Henry Moore began large bronzes from hand-sized maquettes, some based on pebbles and bones he collected, and Claes Oldenburg tested his giant public objects as small painted models. A good maquette shows thinking in progress: proportions tried, adjusted, rejected.