From Lilliput to Brobdingnag: The Role of the Maquette in the Creation of Monumental Sculpture

The word 'maquette' is derived from the French for 'model' having originally come from 'macchietta,' the Italian for 'little spot.' Maquettes are small scale models used by architects and sculptors to pre-empt problems in the 'scaling-up' process. Maquettes help to determine the suitability of the materials used to create a large-scale sculpture and are used to explore structural engineering issues which may arise when the piece is realised at full-size. Additionally, maquettes are a cost effective alternative to an expensive final fabrication whilst also showing sculpture patrons or clients how a monumental piece will look in its intended environment, which is particularly useful during the commissioning of public sculpture. However, and arguably most importantly, maquettes are a record of the creative process.

Maquettes are not just practical models, they can also be sought after pieces in their own right and are often highly coveted as a result of their creative and cultural significance. Maquettes chronicle the artistic journey of their creators and immortalise the immediacy of an artist's preliminary idea. As stated by Guy Davenport, the American writer, artist and intellectual, maquettes are imbued with potential, they are representative of 'the grace of spontaneity and a new kind of attention to process and becoming. Reason after reason can be thought of to account for our delight in the preliminary.'¹

The preliminary, and our delight in it, stems from the potential that it possess; its hint towards the journey from conception to completion. Maquettes occupy a twilight zone between these two points - the liminal territory between the initial idea for a sculpture and its large-scale realisation. However, this is not to say that the maquette should be banished into sculptural obscurity. Like seeds packed with the potential for growth, maquettes are filled with latent monumentality and are vital to the success of their large-scale progeny.



Despite 'process and becoming' being central to any creative practice, it can also be a somewhat protracted enterprise; the creation of a maquette can take time. Ideas for maquettes and their large-scale realisations often gestate over a number of years until an initial small-scale work is morphed into being. Although artists work in many different ways, Eilís O'Connell's artistic practice encapsulates the way in which many maquettes are made and the effort and devotion that is invested in their creation: 'By the time a small model is finished it will have been drawn, redrawn, cut up, added to, stored away, brought out of storage, reworked, overworked, dismissed, binned and then, somehow, rescued, restored, reworked, reappraised and rehabilitated until finally acceptable.' Working on small-scale pieces in this way is conducive to this continual revision and consequent evolution. Maquettes afford the opportunity to develop a work of art and innovate by way of experimentation.

Whereas many maquettes grapple with the dualism between autonomy, as an object in and of themselves, and their place within the process of becoming monumental, they are, in fact, even more influential than first thought. With this revision and evolution in mind, the creation of the maquette can be regarded as the single most important factor in the creation of monumental sculpture, for on completion of the maquette, all of the aesthetic decisions have been made.

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1 - Guy Davenport, Artists' Sketchbooks, exhibition catalogue, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, 1991