Enlarged Plaster

Saint-Gaudens made an enlarged plaster when his plan for a piece was fairly secure. From it, a final work in bronze or marble would be cast or carved. Though a plaster represents the last phase before a work is "final," Saint-Gaudens is known to have reworked the Shaw Memorial's angel figure on the full-scale plaster cast -- after the piece had been cast in its final medium, bronze.

Saint-Gaudens modeling the Sherman Monument, Cornish, New Hampshire, Dartmouth College Library