This rare and unique plaster is one of the only plasters of this scale currently on the market for this highly respected Modern British sculptor, Eduardo Paolozzi. Vulcan is the original model for his monumental commission of the same title which is currently located in Edinburgh where Paolozzi grew up.

At 7m tall Vulcan was one of the last major bronzes Paolozzi made and was originally commissioned for Central Square, Newcastle. It relates to a series of works that go by the same title of which the best known version was commissioned for the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Dean Gallery in Edinburgh.

Vulcan was the Roman god of fire and metalworking. The son of Jupiter and Juno, Vulcan was thrown from Mount Olympus by his mother who was ashamed of his looks. During his fall, Vulcan is said to have broken his leg which never fully recovered making him lame. This could explain why Paolozzi has chosen to depict one foot as being so much smaller than the other.

Myth has it that after marrying Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, Vulcan built a smithy under Mount Etna on the island of Sicily. It is said that whenever Venus is unfaithful, Vulcan grows angry and beats the red-hot metal with such a force that sparks and smoke rise up from the top of the mountain, to create a volcanic eruption. He is shown here gripping his hammer with both strength and pride and Paolozzi depicts him as half-man and half-machine - a monument to the modern age. Paolozzi regularly referred to Vulcan (or his Greek counterpart, Hephaestus) in his work perhaps because he sympathised with Vulcan’s predicament, indeed Paolozzi portrayed himself in this role for a commission for High Holborn, London in 1987, as well as wishing to pay tribute to him as the archetypal sculptor.