Afgietsel van een kapiteel van de Kathedraal van Troyes c. 1875 - 1900

This photograph was taken by Adolphe Giraudon, likely in the late 19th or early 20th century, and it depicts a plaster cast of a capital from the Cathedral of Troyes. Giraudon was known for documenting artworks, and in this case, he's focused on a detail that would have been painstakingly carved from stone, the elaborate foliate design typical of Gothic architecture. What we see here isn't the original object, but a copy, which raises questions about value and authenticity. The plaster cast allowed for wider access to this kind of artwork, but it also changes our relationship to it. Instead of a unique, monumental creation, we have a reproduction, one that could be studied, collected, and perhaps even mass-produced. Think about the labor involved in both the original carving, and the subsequent molding, casting, and photographing. The image captures not just the capital itself, but also a moment in the history of art reproduction and its impact on our understanding of artistic creation.