3D model of cosmowenman
The models were repaired and checked for printability.
I used a compilation of photos of other people's prints of this model in a
...Show more presentation to LACMA on February 3, 2014.
"Supreme western works of art, like Oedipus Rex and Hamlet, preserve their indeterminacy through all interpretation. They are morally ungraspable. Even the Venus de Milo gained everything by losing her arms." -- Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson
In the 19th century, important works of sculptural art were reproduced in plaster. Artisans carefully made molds of the ancient originals, and high-quality reproductions were then cast in plaster to be bought, sold, and traded by museums, universities, art schools, and private collectors everywhere. Plaster casts of the 2nd century BC Venus de Milo were very popular, and would have been found in cast collections all over the world.
But the plaster cast tradition faded in the early 1900s. Cast collections were broken up, sold off piece by piece, and in some cases actually physically destroyed. Today there are only a few sizeable collections of plaster casts left in existence.
The Skulpturhalle Basel museum in Switzerland maintains one of the world's few surviving large collections of plaster casts. They have a very high quality cast of Venus de Milo, which was commissioned by the University of Basel and carefully cast by the Louvre's own atelier in 1850.
This model of Venus de Milo is a modern artifact and direct descendent of the plaster cast tradition, which is poised for a 3D captured, 3D printed, digital renaissance. It is to my knowledge the first high-quality 3D survey of the Venus de Milo to be freely published, and I am pleased to be able to offer you direct access to its ancient, enigmatic, and graceful contours, which descend to us through an unbroken chain from antiquity -- from the Greek island of Milos 2,100 years ago, to the Louvre, to the Skulpturhalle, through my camera lens, to you.
Printing:
The complete, single-part model needs supports under the figure's right arm, and under the face. I've printed it small, with no infill, with RepG for file prep and a Replicator1.
The multi-part sections print well in PLA with no external supports. I've printed them several times with RepG for file prep and a Replicator1, with zero infill, 3 walls thick, at .2mm layer height for the body pieces, and 10% infill, 4 walls thick and .12mm layer height for the face and crown pieces. At its current scale, the assembled print stands about 19.5 inches tall, and is roughly the same scale as my Winged Victory model -- they make a nice pair side-by-side.
Other machine and software combos may require different settings.
https://twitter.com/CosmoWenman
