The journey ends with two operations. The first, the finishing, allows to amend to all the imperfections on the sculpture and to delete all traces of the cleaning process, aligning the surface to the artist’s own plan. The second, the coating, assigns to the sculpture the aesthetic, chromatic appearance desired: polished rather than aged; of a colour rather than the other.
Often the choice of nuance can highlight details of the artwork which otherwise would be almost invisible to the human gaze. Particular attention, at the Mapelli foundry, is given to this part of the process, a lengthy and very accurate piece of work that include the colouring of metal through chemical reactions with salts and oxides diluted in water or alcohol. Under no circumstance acrylics or varnish are used to cover the bronze. Thanks to this, the sculpture can assume many different chromatic nuances for a final result that enhances the artwork and the identity of the material.
