Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 1
Alloy: Leaded Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin, lead
Other Elements: iron, nickel
Katherine Eremin January 2014
Technical Observations: The patina is black with areas of red and green. Incomplete areas on the back edges are casting flaws rather than the result of damage. The base below the lion’s feet is heavily corroded and has large clumps of green malachite and burial accretions. The front of the lintel was carved flat through the malachite layers during an early restoration process. Damage on the proper right half of this lintel is backed at the interior with modern sheets of copper and filled with black and green resinous material. The dull black covering 80% of the surface appears to be modern copper sulfide corrosion products, probably from a sulfur-containing storage environment. It is likely that this material grew on top of a green malachite surface.
The object was made using a direct lost-wax process, which involved forming the wax model on a prepared core. Evidence for this is visible on the reverse, where the facial features, such as the eyes, nose, and mouth, are simplified in comparison with the modeling of the front. The transitions between the shapes on the back of the head are more angular than what would be expected if an indirect process had been used. Fine ridges at the highpoints on the reverse, which correspond to low points on the front such as the mouth and eye sockets, reflect the way the core was cut. This appearance contrasts with the more fluid, less geometric inner surface that results from melting or otherwise applying wax to a negative mold in the process of indirect lost-wax casting. The flat, raised strip (1.5 cm wide) bordering the large opening on the reverse was applied as wax sheet to create a more finished, uniform edge. Large casting flaws over half of the opening obliterated most of this strip. A large flaw at the top of the head was crudely repaired during manufacture by pouring molten bronze over the flaw on the reverse. The pour did not fully fill the flaw hole but instead dribbled in large droplets into the nose and eye areas. Another 1.5-cm flaw hole on the back of the upper right leg is not repaired. The two rectangular holes on the back of the base may have connected the core to the outer investment and may have served to stabilize the core. A flange (3 cm wide) projects 1.5 cm at the base between these two holes and is probably related to an original mounting scheme. On the front, the hair, incised lines, projecting teeth, and horn-like elements were added and formed directly in soft wax, giving these details a very irregular and fluid appearance.
Henry Lie (submitted 2011)
