Maquette: The Scale Model That Bridges Sculptor's Idea and Final Work

In 1884, the city of Calais commissioned Auguste Rodin to create a monument to six citizens who had sacrificed themselves to save the city during the Hundred Years' War. Rodin's first step was not to carve stone or pour bronze. He made a small clay model, about 24 inches tall, showing all six figures grouped together on a shared base. He submitted this model to the Calais town council to win the commission. That model is a maquette, and it is now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. Looking at it alongside the finished monument, which stands over six feet tall in Calais, you can see how Rodin's ideas evolved. The maquette shows the figures intertwined and elevated on a pedestal. The finished work separates them and places them at ground level, so they stand among the people of the city. The maquette is the record of where the idea started.

A maquette is a scale model made by a sculptor or architect to develop and present a design before producing the final work at full size. The word comes from the French "maquette," derived from the Italian "macchietta," meaning a small spot or sketch, which comes from "macchia," a stain or spot. A maquette is more finished and deliberate than a bozzetto, which is a rapid, rough sketch. Maquettes are typically made to show patrons, to win commissions, or to guide assistants in producing the final work. They can be made in clay, plaster, wax, wood, or any material the sculptor chooses.

This entry covers what maquettes are, how they differ from bozzetti, how Rodin and other sculptors used them, and how maquettes function in contemporary art and architecture.

What Is a Maquette and What Does It Do?

A maquette serves two main purposes. First, it is a design tool. The sculptor works out the composition, proportions, and spatial relationships of the final work at a manageable scale. Problems that are invisible in a drawing become obvious in three dimensions. A figure that looks balanced in a two-dimensional sketch may lean awkwardly when modeled in clay. A group of figures that seem well-spaced on paper may crowd each other when given physical volume. The maquette reveals these issues before the sculptor commits to expensive materials and full-scale production.

Second, a maquette is a presentation tool. For centuries, sculptors and architects have used maquettes to communicate their designs to patrons who could not read technical drawings. A three-dimensional model shows the patron exactly what the finished work will look like from every angle. This is particularly important for public commissions, where the maquette may be reviewed by a committee or displayed in a competition alongside maquettes by other artists.

The Brooklyn Museum's entry on Rodin's Burghers of Calais maquette describes it as "the initial maquette, or model, that Rodin submitted to the town council of Calais to secure the commission." This is the classic function of a maquette: a presentation model made to win a commission. The maquette shows all six burghers grouped on an elaborate base that was never produced at full scale. Rodin's thinking evolved after the maquette was accepted, and the finished monument differs significantly from the initial model.

Maquette vs. Bozzetto

The terms maquette and bozzetto are often used interchangeably, but they carry different connotations. A bozzetto is a rough, rapid sketch, made for the sculptor's own exploration. It is not meant to be seen by anyone else. A maquette is more finished, more deliberate, and often made for an audience, whether that is a patron, a competition jury, or the sculptor's assistants. The distinction is not always clear-cut. Some objects that scholars call bozzetti are quite finished, and some maquettes retain the spontaneous quality of a sketch.

In Bernini's workshop, the distinction was explicit. Bozzetti were the first, rough clay sketches. Modelli were the more finished versions shown to patrons. The Italian term "modello" corresponds closely to the French "maquette." Both refer to a presentation model that is more refined than a sketch but smaller and less detailed than the final work. Read more about the rougher end of this spectrum in our entry on bozzetto.

Rodin and the Maquette Tradition

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) is the sculptor most closely associated with maquettes in the modern era. Rodin's studio practice was built around small clay models. He modeled rapidly in clay, producing dozens of small studies for each major commission. These maquettes were the raw material of his sculpture. He would model a figure in clay at small scale, then have it enlarged to full size by assistants using a pointing machine or proportional calipers. The clay original was then cast in plaster, and the plaster was used as the pattern for the final bronze or marble.

The Musee Rodin's Studio Rodin exhibition documents this process. The museum, which holds the moral rights to Rodin's work, maintains a collection of original molds and maquettes that are still used to produce authorized bronze casts. The exhibition, which began touring in December 2024 and continues into 2026, presents 21 reproductions cast from original molds alongside drawings and photographs that show Rodin's working process.

Rodin's maquette for the Monument to Victor Hugo (1897, Musee Rodin Meudon) shows the poet seated on rocks during his exile in Guernsey, accompanied by two allegorical female figures. The Musee Rodin Meudon catalog entry describes how the maquette represents the final version of a design that evolved over a decade. Rodin received the commission in 1889, and the monument was inaugurated in 1909. The maquette shows the design at an intermediate stage, with the composition essentially fixed but details still evolving.

Rodin's contemporary Jules Dalou also used maquettes extensively. A small terracotta maquette by Dalou for the Monument to the Republic in the Place de la Nation, Paris, is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's documentation describes how Dalou's tiny terracotta figure, representing the personification of the Republic, retains "the intimacy of the moment" of creation. The finished monument was inaugurated in 1899, but the maquette puts us in direct contact with the artist's first thought.

Maquettes in Architecture

Architects have used maquettes for as long as sculptors have. An architectural maquette is a scale model of a building or urban plan, made to study the design and present it to clients or the public. The tradition dates to the Renaissance, when architects like Brunelleschi and Michelangelo made wooden models of their buildings. Brunelleschi's model for the dome of Florence Cathedral (c. 1418-1436) was a working model that demonstrated the structural system he proposed. Michelangelo's wooden model for the dome of St. Peter's Basilica (c. 1557-1561) is preserved in the Vatican Museums.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, architectural maquettes have become increasingly sophisticated. Contemporary architecture firms produce detailed presentation models using laser cutting, 3D printing, and CNC milling alongside traditional handcraft. These models serve the same function as Rodin's clay maquettes: they let the designer and the client see the project in three dimensions before it is built.

Maquettes in Contemporary Art

Contemporary sculptors continue to use maquettes as part of their process, particularly for large-scale public art commissions. A maquette is often required as part of the competition process for public art projects. Artists submit maquettes to selection committees, who evaluate the design based on the model before awarding the commission.

In 2023-2024, the Musee Rodin in Paris hosted an exhibition of work by Antony Gormley alongside Rodin's sculptures. The exhibition, Critical Mass, included Gormley's studies and maquettes displayed near Rodin's own models, highlighting how both sculptors use the maquette as a thinking tool. The exhibition documentation notes that "a series of studies by Gormley are presented near the maquettes of Rodin," showing the continuity of the maquette tradition from the 19th century to the present.

For large-scale installation and land art projects, maquettes serve an additional function: they are often the only way the audience can see the work in its entirety. A maquette of a land art project like Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970) or Christo and Jeanne-Claude's wrapped structures provides a view of the complete work that is impossible from ground level at the actual site.

How Maquettes Are Made

The traditional material for a sculptural maquette is clay, because it is cheap, fast, and infinitely reworkable. A sculptor can model a clay maquette in hours, let it dry, and have it fired or cast in plaster for permanence. Plaster is another common material, particularly for presentation maquettes, because it captures fine detail and has a clean, neutral surface. Wax is used for small, detailed maquettes, particularly for bronze casting projects where the maquette may serve as the starting point for the lost wax process.

Contemporary sculptors also use 3D printing and digital modeling to create maquettes. A digital model can be 3D printed at any scale, allowing the artist to produce multiple maquettes at different sizes from the same file. This does not replace the tactile quality of hand-modeled clay, but it does offer new possibilities for precision and iteration.

For architectural maquettes, materials include basswood, foam core, acrylic, and 3D-printed plastics. The choice of material depends on the level of detail required and the presentation context. A competition model may be highly finished with realistic materials and landscaping, while a working study model may be made from simple foam core to test massing and proportion.

See Maquettes in Person

The Musee Rodin in Paris has the largest collection of Rodin maquettes, including the Monument to Victor Hugo maquette at the Meudon branch and numerous clay studies in the main museum. The Brooklyn Museum in New York holds the first maquette for the Burghers of Calais. The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra holds maquettes and studies by both Rodin and Dalou. The Harvard Art Museums hold Bernini's terracotta modelli, which represent the maquette tradition in its Baroque form.

For more on the sculptural process, read our entries on bozzetto, modeling, sculpture, and lost wax casting. For the broader context of how preparatory models fit into the creative process, read our post on reading a painting, or explore our guide to Renaissance art and the birth of modern art.