Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Proplasma

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

PROPLAS'MA (πρόπλασμα). A small rough model in clay or terra cotta, which sculptors form in order to embody their first thoughts in a rapid and sketchy manner. It serves to show them the composition of their figures, the arrangement, grouping, and position of the limbs and accessories, in the different points of view all round; and thus to regulate the form of the frame upon which the full-sized model of the finished work is to be executed from nature. Plin. H. N. xxxv. 45. Cic. Att. xii. 41.