What is a collas machine?

Answer 1

The Collas Machine

Invented in 1836 by a French engineer named Achille Collas, this

machine signified a huge technological leap in the reproduction of

sculpture and statuary in varying sizes. The Collas Machine uses a

pantograph system to make proportionately larger or smaller duplications of a model. The concept can be traced to ancient Greek and Roman artists, who wanted to reproduce the perfect proportions of the human figure in their sculpture. Their method was called pointing, which meant that measurements of the desired figure were taken, then proportionally increased or decreased on a model.

Collas Machines often look like lathes: on one turntable sits the model and on a second turntable, connected to the first, sits a clay or plaster blank that has been roughly shaped to resemble the model but on a larger or smaller scale. The Collas Machine keeps the model and the blank in the same orientation as the technician uses a tracing needle, linked to a sharp cutting instrument, or stylus, to transfer a succession of profiles from the model onto the blank. Gradually the blank is worked, by the artist and/or trusted assistants, so that it becomes a larger or smaller duplicate of the model.