Volume 4 of the National Gallery of Art’s biennial conservation research journal Facture examines the complex themes of series, multiples, and replicas. With a broad historical purview that spans from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, this publication considers various modes of replication—by the artist’s own hand or workshop, as a posthumous creation, or as a preferred practice—and their motivations. Drawing on new research into materials and techniques, nine essays focus on works in diverse media by artists such as Sandro Botticelli, Auguste Rodin, and Robert Rauschenberg and present intriguing conclusions about the nature of serialization and the relationships among multiple versions of a composition. Filled with detailed photographs and fresh discoveries, this volume provides exceptional insight into these extraordinary works of art and offers the possibility of exciting new avenues of inquiry.

*This eBook is available exclusively on the A&AePortal*

This volume of Facture, a biennial journal that presents the latest conservation research on works of art at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, focuses exclusively on conservation treatment, technical art history, and scientific research related to masterpieces by the beloved French artist Edgar Degas (1834–1917).  The National Gallery’s extraordinary collection of sculptures, paintings, and works on paper by Degas, including an incomparable group of his wax sculptures—among them his iconic Little Dancer Aged Fourteen—allows the institution to contribute significantly to understanding the artist’s methods and intentions. This volume features discussions of the notion of “finish” in Degas’s paintings, the complex makeup of his wax sculptures, the casting of posthumous bronzes, his innovative use of multiple layers of pastel and fixative in a late work on paper, and even a sonnet that Degas wrote to his “little dancer.”