Heads, horses, bodies . . . A team of workers painstakingly recreates sculptures by Greece’s ancient masters. They’re not forgers or thieves—they’re artists. And what they do isn’t illegal. In fact, they’re making copies for the Greek government.
Casting is a 6,000-year-old art form. An artist slathers an item to be copied with rubber-like goop. After it sets, the artist pulls the stuff off. It becomes the original in reverse—a mold. The artist pours a liquid into the mold, and it hardens. What comes out is a copy of the original.
Athens’ Culture Ministry has the sole right to make official copies of Greek sculptors—Phidias, Praxiteles, Myron, and others. Trained artisans make quality castings from ancient originals. The copies are for sale at Greek museums and archaeological sites. Proceeds help fund archaeology and conservation projects.
A team of fine arts graduates works on a range of sculptures. They’ve cast everything from a three-inch hare from Roman-era Macedonia to a seven-foot bronze statue of Zeus made in the mid-fifth century B.C.
“The standard is very high. And every artist tries to emulate what was done by the artist in ancient times,” says supervisor Stelios Gavalas, a sculptor by training.
Castings made by the Greek artists are full-scale. Plaster is the preferred casting material—mostly because it does not shrink while drying, unlike other materials such as resin or wax. Plaster also allows artists to create reproductions that are completely accurate in size.
Each reproduction can take days to complete. Each is carefully hand-painted to match the original, whether metal, marble, clay, or even ivory. The Zeus copy took longer. Artists worked nearly two months from beginning to end, including drying time.
Artists make casts in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens where the originals are kept. They store the molds in museum workshops. The artists place their new castings with more than a thousand early copies, some dating from the late 1800s. But it’s the ancient sculptures that make casting work rewarding. Gavalas calls it a “big honor to have daily contact with works of the great artists of antiquity.”
Have you ever thought of yourself as a copy? Physically, you’re a copy of your parents. Spiritually, we’re either copies of our culture or copies of Christ. Think about it: “Do not be conformed (molded) to this world.” (Romans 12:2) “Be imitators (copies) of God.” (Ephesians 5:1) That’s the highest standard, for sure. But thankfully, in Jesus, our shortcomings are graciously covered over and in the future, the true Master will recreate us perfectly.
