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Mascarons and the Sculptors
The 384 mascarons that decorate the Pont Neuf are its most outstanding feature. A mascaron, from the Italian mascarone (mask), is a sculpted head, often grotesque, sporting fantastical traits, such as pointed ears, horns, sea-shell crowns or beards made of bunches of grapes. One mascaron seems to portray an African woman. In any case, on the Pont Neuf, no two of these massive stone heads are identical.
Over more than a century, since the last major restoration, the mascarons have been damaged and blackened by air pollution, acid rain and wind. The current restoration has replaced more than half of them with copies that have been sculpted in place
The image below shows the blackened mascarons before the restorations began.
1994
The first step in creating a replacement mascaron is the making of a plaster of Paris casting of the original. To begin the process, the sculptors coat the mascaron with a silicon-based liquid, a commercial product called élastomère. When dry, the élastomère is peeled off the head, and it becomes the mold - a kind of negative to produce the positive casting (photo on the left).
To make the casting, the sculptors place the mold into a support, and then pour plaster of Paris mixed with fiber into it. When the plaster of Paris is dry, the mold is removed, leaving a casting of the mascaron (photo on the right). After creating the casting, the old mascaron is cut from the bridge and replaced by a block of stone.
 
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The photo below shows, on the left, a virgin block of stone imbedded into the bridge. Next to it is a plaster of paris casting; the apparatus resting on it, a kind of 3D pantograph, is what the sculptors call a "pointing machine." To the right are the beginnings of a new mascaron, with a pencil sketch of the eyes already in place. With the help of his machine, the sculptor transfers hundreds of points in three dimensions from the casting to the block of stone in order to carve a rough, early form of the new mascaron.
1994
Below is Yves, who worked on the first arch in 1994-95. He is using his machine to select a point to be transferred.
1994
In the photo below, Jean and Yves are working together. Yves, in the background, has just started his mascaron; he is making use of his machine on the casting, which is hanging behind him. Jean, on the other hand, is farther along; he can now work by eye alone, without need of the machine. Note that Jean has added some details in clay to his casting in order to reconstruct some parts of the old and damaged mascaron that were missing.
1994
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