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According to Carol Mattusch, guest curator of the exhibition and a professor of art history at George Mason University, "Ancient literary accounts indicate that freestanding bronze statuary was the primary mode of artistic expression in classical Greece, although it was not until the nineteenth century that any original bronze statues of that period or earlier were known." What happened to them all? Mattusch, a world authority on large classical bronzes, and the person who conceived the idea for The Fire of Hephaistos, explains that many were indeed melted down to make weapons of war or other utilitarian objects. She cites one instance when many statues were cleared from the Capitoline Hill in Rome simply because they were obstructing the view. Public statuary of famed leaders fell victim to political changes. Early Christians destroyed bronze gods, inauspicious relics from a pagan past. The small number of large classical bronzes that escaped the early vagaries of human history have come down to us as survivors, buried in the earth, drowned in rivers, or shipwrecked at sea.

Once recovered, bronzes must fight other battles; one assault is known as bronze disease. Brauer reaches for an example on a nearby shelf. One leg of a small figure is discolored an iridescent green. In bronze, this emerald sheen is a beautiful, fatal color. "The disease is difficult to get rid of," says conservator Lie. "Bronze is porous, so during burial, chlorides sometimes get deep within the metal, carried in by water. When the bronze is excavated, oxygen reacts with the chlorides, and can continue to react indefinitely." Low relative humidity helps prevent fresh outbreaks of bronze disease, but once begun, the area affected typically must be excavated, filled with silver oxide, and coated with a sealant to keep air out. "Untreated," says Lie, "some bronzes would disintegrate to almost nothing." Brauer will scrutinize all bronzes loaned to the exhibit for fresh outbreaks of the disease, since rapid changes in temperature and relative humidity can occur during shipment.

Her mandate is to ensure the safe installation of 55 objects for the exhibit-51 of them bronzes-and to see them mounted and sealed in display cases with silica gel, which absorbs moisture in the air. She faces an enormous job. The schedule calls for most of the bronzes to arrive on a Monday, be unpacked on Tuesday (after acclimating to the Sackler), then be measured by a mount maker on Wednesday, and mounted, sealed in a case, and moved into position for the exhibit on Thursday. A number of the bronzes will come with human escorts, who will wait out the four days to see their treasures installed in the exact positions that they will occupy for the exhibit. Brauer will need divine strength to survive the week.

She holds out a tiny figure of Hephaistos, the Greek god of forge and fire for whom the exhibit is named. He is the one small bronze in the show, standing little more than three and a half inches tall. Above a bearded face, he wears a broad conical hat. From beneath his metalworker's tunic, strong arms emerge wielding the hammer and tongs of his trade. He was, perhaps, an ancient tourist memento.

Hephaistos is just one of the items that-though not themselves large classical bronzes-enrich and illuminate our understanding of ancient bronze casting. Several unattached "body parts"-arms, hands, and eyes-will find a place in displays focusing attention on how different classical artists approached similar problems in depicting human anatomy. This display will echo the scenes of work in an ancient foundry depicted on the exterior of the Athenian Foundry Cup (loaned by the State Museum, Berlin), the only non-American object in the show. "In one scene," writes Mattusch in the application for the NEH grant, "a worker has just added the right hand to a bronze statue of a young runner or jumper: the thin line of the join is easy to see. The naturalistic head of the athlete, mouth open and eyes wide with excitement, has not yet been attached, and reposes somewhat expectantly on the ground. A foot and a hand can be seen hanging on the wall behind the workman. Two more workers are seen to the left, tending to the furnace. On the other side of the cup, two workmen polish and finish the legs of a colossal nude, but fully armed, bronze warrior. As the only known ancient visual representation of classical metalworking, this vase is an extremely important document."

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