Metalworking in Bronze Age China: The Lost-Wax Process By Peng Pe ...

The Indirect Process

To avoid the permanent loss of the original model, the “indirect” lost-wax casting process was invented by borrowing technical elements from the section-mold process. This method maintains the original model through the use of a permanent section mold, which can yield any desired number of wax models that are to be cast in a given shape.¹⁷ In this way, the metal handles of classic Greek vessels were produced as multiples after a single model. The working models for these handles are thought to have been reproduced in wax from a permanent section mold (the “master mold”) that retained the impression of the original model.¹⁸ The use of the indirect lost-wax process in this way facilitated reproductions.¹⁹

Alternatively, wax models after the same original could be extensively detailed, retouched, and individualized before being cast.²⁰ The renowned Riace bronzes (fig. 3) provide a good illustration of this point. Almost identical in height, body outline, and posture, the two nudes were apparently based on a single original model, yet they differ in appearance, spirit, and musculature, apparently due to extensive individual work on the wax-working models (especially on the heads).²¹ The manufacture of the Riace bronzes freely combined the solid casting, indirect lost-wax, and direct lost-wax processes. As Bagley commented, the procedure for making the Riace bronzes “raises the possibility of a sort of customized mass production in which contributions to the finished work might have been divided between different workshops and even different cities.”²² They also provide inspiration for the study of lost-wax casting in Bronze Age China.

Before studying the lost-wax casting of Bronze Age China, it is important to dispense with the idea that “the lost-wax process” is a simple thing. The problematic part of this term is “the,” which betrays a presumption that the process is uniform, when in fact a variety of methods were used. The bronze caster does not work from a single textbook diagram; he does whatever it takes to make a particular object. As will be discussed, the