Bronze sculpture
Bronze is the most popular metal for cast metal sculptures; a cast-metal sculpture of bronze is often called a bronze. Common bronze alloys often have the unusual and very desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling the finest details of a mold.
The manufacture of bronzes is highly skilled work, and a number of distinct casting processes may be employed, including lost-wax casting, sandcasting and centrifugal casting. The lost-wax process goes like this: A full-sized model of the sculpture is made, most often in clay. A mold is made from the clay pattern; a wax is then cast from this. The wax is then invested in another kind of mold or shell, which is heated in a kiln until the wax runs out. The investment is then filled with molten bronze.
Bronzes on Wikipedia pages include:
Sculptors
People
Abstract and Symbolic
Animals
See also