Review of Bill Hunt's Lorica

Ok, overall impression. Not bad. Better than I could do. Anyone who has every picked up hammer and tongs knows how hard this would have been. The lorica musculata was certainly made by a craftsman who did nothing else and had a whole workshop at his disposal, not to mention slaves. We, on the other hand are art historians, hobbyists, and apparently policemen! As it turns out I have worked in metals before, making hinges and knives on a forge and anvil, I've also taken a jewelry class so I have some small experience with repousee technique which is dang hard, so I have a great deal of admiration and respect for what Bill is trying to do. That being said I do have a number of suggestions and Bill told me to be brutally honest, so here goes.

First off, the overall shape is good with a number of small quibbles. First of all is the absence of love handles. Nearly all modern loricae that I have seen have no love handles while ALL of the ancient examples I've seen have love handles. Modern aesthetics like male torsos that taper down to the waist, but all ancient sculpture has well proportioned love handles. It's an aesthetic thing the way that Rubens liked to paint women with cellulite. I know it makes the shape more complicated and harder to put a hinge on but it really changes the shape a lot. If you want a model I'll take a picture of myself in the mirror. I have excellent Roman love handles.

The Torso should be more square and not triangular, also the upper abdominal muscles are too emphasized and the transitions between the upper torso and abdomen needs to be more subtle. There is this tendency to go too much in the direction of Arnold Scharzenegger. Depending on the time period muscles were either naturally rendered or exaggerated. (The muscles of the Hellenistic period were VERY exaggerated and were the chief models for Michelangelo, which is why his figures all look like steroid abusers.) The shapes of the muscles are a little primitive and this is a matter of period and region. Images of the lorica musculata from the republican period are more simplistic, as are images from Romano-British sources. It depends on what you are shooting for and what you can manage. BTW Ð this would look a whole lot better if it wasn't hung up on (I presume) Bill's holster and belt. It should rest on the shoulders and the bottom of the lorica should be at or just below the waist. On this shot its pushed up to far.

The one feature that makes it look more rustic is the presence of hammer marks. Hammer marks are an unavoidable side effect of the process of repousee, but I've never seen a statue with noticeable hammer marks. That doesn't mean they didn't exist, it just means they didn't show them, or that they were insignificant enough not to render in sculpture. Getting rid of hammer marks is a bear. You start out by slowly decreasing the size of your hammer, -- and there is a whole technique to do this that I can't even explain because I never ever got the hang of it -- and then move to a burnishing tool (groan) and LOTS of polishing. Lots of jewelry makers just don't bother and I have no idea if Bill has the patience for that. I wouldn't but I thought I would mention it. Something to shoot for.

Iconographically he's got the images right, with the acanthus design on the lower abdomen and the gorgoneion on the breast. They look a little primitive and more engraved than pushed out, but again, the further from the imperial period and Rome you get, the more primitive they get. The lightning bolts are good too. The spiral knobs look cool but they don't seem very historical. There's a great image of an emperor in a lorica that was made in Britain and IT has spirals so you never know.

Now my biggest objection, the side details. I have never seen rivets on any examples that I know of. That raises the obvious question, how did they do this? Good question. I think they rolled the edges to hold things in place, that's a tricky thing but there it is. Also, the hinges shouldn't be a continuous hinge like a piano hinge but two small hinges, like on the Etruscan example in the British Museum or the Primaporta Augustus in the Vatican. In my sources the hinges seem to be made up from the same piece of sheet metal as the breastplate. The hinge that rivets right on to the backplate is just plain ugly and should at the very least be moved to the inside so that it isn't so obvious, but it would be better if the hinge was made up of the same piece as the backplate.

Do I think this piece can't be saved? Far from it. I've seen stuff from Deepka that is FAR worse. I would like to see it in person and talk to Bill in detail about the process and forms, but in all I think he should be commended, details are always hard to hammer out, no pun intended.