Butter sculpture
[1] Archaeologists have found bread and pudding molds of animal and human shapes at sites from Babylon to Roman Britain.
[1] In 1536 Bartolomeo Scappi, cook to Pope Pius V, organized a feast composed of nine scenes elaborately carved out of food, each carried in episodically as centerpieces for a banquet.
[1] Scappi mentioned several butter sculptures for the feast, including an elephant with a palanquin, a figure of Hercules struggling with a lion, and a Moor on a camel.
[1] The earliest butter sculpture in the modern sense (as public art and not a banquet centerpiece) can be traced to the 1876 Centennial Exhibition where Caroline Shawk Brooks, a farm woman from Helena, Arkansas, displayed her Dreaming Iolanthe, a basrelief bust of a woman modeled in butter.
[1] Afterwards she studied in Paris and Florence and eventually became a professional sculptor who worked in marble, but occasionally continued to make butter art.
[6] New cow and calf sculptures are created each year, reflecting positive ideals and cultural trends in Ohio, and have become a Fair tradition.
This second sculpture typically depicted people in everyday activities such as butter churning, or playing with a dog.
Dutt was trained at the Art Institute of Chicago and had experience sculpting many materials, from plaster and clay to lard.
Some of her more notable sculptures include likenesses of Garth Brooks, John Wayne, Elvis Presley, and her own full version of The Last Supper, all made of butter.
Duffy (a nickname derived from her maiden name, Duffield), as she was lovingly known, also sculpted Butter Cows for other states such as Illinois and Utah over the years.
Most start with choosing one of the six dairy cattle breeds (Holstein, Guernsey, Jersey, Brown Swiss, Ayrshire, and Milking Shorthorn) to recreate.
Over the years, sculptors moved from working in chilled rooms to large refrigerated display cases with temperatures between 35 and 40 °F.
The butter is placed on a wooden-and-wire armature, at first in large amounts to achieve the general shape of the cow, and later in smaller quantities to fine-tune the form.
Though the sculptors claim it was never a secret that the Buttercow is built on a wooden armature, many people assumed the sculpture was solid, and made entirely from butter, despite the logistical impossibilities.
Each of the twelve days of the fair one finalist will be carved, currently by Linda Christensen, a California sculptor originally from Minnesota.
Once the carving is complete it is displayed for the remainder of the fair, and at its closing each dairy princess may take hers home and use it as she wishes (sometimes used at graduation parties or wedding receptions).
Some in the Canadian press were however unhappy about the 1925 sculpture, with one paper writing "it is time that Canada should cease to be advertised by representations of Indians in war paint.”[12] Shortly after the end of World War II, the Ontario Cream Producers Marketing Board and the Dairy Producers of Canada began a campaign to promote their products.
Butter sculptures were displayed at both the Canadian National Exhibition and Royal Agricultural Winter Fairs in Toronto.
The last butter sculptures that Ross created were Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at the Western Fair in London, Ontario in 1956.
In 1986, a fitting tribute to Ross Butler at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair included his likeness sculpted in butter by Windsor artist, Christopher Rees.
