Moulages et collections, moulages et vestiges mésoaméricains, un dialogue ?

Abstract

During the second half of the nineteenth century, European explorers discovered the ruins of Prehispanic cities in Mexico and northern Central America. In order to replicate them in museums, they made moulds of the monuments which were profusely decorated with images and writings still to be deciphered. The hundred and twelve casts preserved at the quai Branly museum help us understand the historical context of these reproductions as well as their place in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Keywords

• archaeology
• museum
• moulding
• plaster casts
• voyagers
• Mexico