Renaissance Metalworking and Lifecasting with Rachel King | Curator's Corner S7 Ep8

During the 1500s, artists and makers were pushing themselves to create works that were as realistic to nature as possible. However, some of them may have pushed a bit too hard, particularly if you were to ask a lizard.

Join curator Rachel King, as she investigates techniques used to make this extraordinary bell.

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Manufactured around 1550 in Nuremberg by German master craftsman, Wenzel Jamnitzer the bell is an excellent example of lifecasting.

Rachel investigates a manuscript written some time between 1579 and 1620 in which an enthusiastic maker and craftsman collated hand written recipes and instructions on how to make things.

The anonymous scribe filled 170 folios (or 340 single pages) with closely written text and some hand-drawn figures containing recipes, instructions, fragmentary notes, firsthand accounts of trials with many materials and techniques.

The resulting manuscript held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), catalogued as Ms. Fr. 640, brings a better understanding of how and why nature was investigated, used in art, and collected and appreciated in early modern Europe.

You can find out more about the manuscript and the research on it's content here: https://bit.ly/3EUsvu7

1:31 The Celini Bella
3:06 Lifecasting techniques
3:35 How do you cast foliage?
6:18 How do you cast a grasshopper?
7:47 How do you catch and cast a lizard?