Do Sleeping Shepherds Dream of 3D-Printed Sheep: John Gibson, Oliver Laric, and Digital Neoclassicism

Abstract

The Welsh-born sculptor John Gibson (1790-1866) was one of the most popular British artists in Rome during the nineteenth century. 2 His studio on Via della Fontanella near the Piazza del Popolo was a mandatory stop for visitors on the Grand Tour. 3 Ever the classicist, Gibson praised the sculptural achievements of the Greeks, declaring 'Whatever the Greeks did was right', and 'In the art of sculpture the Greeks were gods'. 4 Best known today for his Tinted Venus, 1851-53, in which he reintroduced the ancient aesthetic of polychrome sculpture through wax-based pigments on marble, Gibson came to be derided by critics who considered this sculpture and his other coloured figures to be failed experiments. 5 As a result, for 1 The ideas presented in this article developed during research award periods at the Henry Moore Institute and the Yale Center for British Art, evolved into part of a paper presented at the College Art Association conference in 2012 on the rethinking of sculpture production, and became the basis of a chapter in my doctoral dissertation. I owe a debt of gratitude to a number of colleagues and friends for their feedback on these ideas over the years, but special thanks go out to Martina Droth, Greg Sullivan, and Richard Woodfield. 2 The primary sources on Gibson's life and career are: