Deel van een gipsafgietsel van de graftombe van hertog François II c. 1875 - 1900

This is a photograph, taken by Médéric Mieusement, of a plaster cast of the tomb of Duke François II. Mieusement was a prolific photographer of French monuments. He often used plaster casts of the originals, as in this instance, to create his photographs. Plaster is easy to work, and can capture incredibly fine detail. But it’s also fragile, and was often used as an intermediate material, on the way to carving something in marble or bronze. The irony here, of course, is that Mieusement has captured the plaster in a photograph, an industrial medium capable of infinite reproduction. So we have a copy of a copy, a strange kind of echo. It makes you think about the work that went into the original tomb, and how different that must have been from the experience of Mieusement, who was able to make this image in a relatively short time, with a camera and a portable darkroom. It reminds us that all works of art are shaped by the possibilities and limitations of their time.