Galleria Romanelli, Sight Size Method

For Summer internship this year I signed up for sculpture classes at Galleria Romanelli in Florence Italy. My instructor is Raffaello Romanelli. For the first sculpture I would be trying to recreate the lips from Michelangelo's "David". Before I began, Raffaello would explain the "sight size" method to me. This method is used to copy an existing sculpture or plaster mold with a high degree of accuracy. This sculpture was fairly simple and only took two days to complete. Once completed the clay was reused to create the next scuplture.

Picking out a position on the floor to take proper sight of the sculpture. The farther back the better.

In the sight size method you will pick a location some distance back from the sculpture, but it is important to go back to closely the same position, so the view is the same each time when you check your work. The farther back from the sculpture the better. The next step is to fill the mass of your sculpture until it is roughly the same size as the one you are copying. Once you have the width and height of the mass, you then try to fill in other details and the depth of the sculpture. Michelangelo used to say that a sculpture should always be beautiful, while in practice this is very difficult, especially as a beginner, but the goal is to get as close to the final shapes and mass of the sculpture as quickly as possible, then the rest is only refinement of details.

Starting the first sculpture.

Viewing from the side will reveal other issues that can't be seen easily from the front perspective.

Moving around the sculpture is helpful for spotting issues, but it is important to keep in mind how the closer scuplture will always appear larger. When making final adjustments it is best to keep them at the same distance.

First sculpture complete.