maquette

American  

[ma-ket, muh-] / mæˈkɛt, mə- /

noun

1. a small model or study in three dimensions for either a sculptural or an architectural project.

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maquette British  

/ mæˈkɛt /

noun

1. a sculptor's small preliminary model or sketch

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Etymology

Origin of maquette

1900–05; < French < Italian macchietta, diminutive of macchia a sketch, complex of lines < Latin macula mesh, spot

Example Sentences

To demonstrate, Close’s meticulously detailed head of mustachioed “Robert,” 9 feet tall, is installed next to its maquette, an enlarged and subdivided black-and-white photograph overlaid with a tight grid.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 4, 2024

The maquette, a preliminary clay model of the statue, captures his charming smile and Frank sitting on a river’s edge as salmon leap from the water.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 15, 2024

The maquette model sold at auction for $125,000.

From Washington Times • Dec. 21, 2022

To inspect Carol Brown Goldberg’s wooden precursor to a funky bronze pillar, or John L. Dreyfuss’s wax-and-wood maquette of a fiberglass monolith, is to gain a fresh perspective on the link between form and material.

From Washington Post • Sep. 15, 2021

So North probably saw not a working model, or even a maquette, but a drawing—hence his insistence that he had only seen it in model.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton