maquette

A maquette is a small model or sculpture that represents a larger object, like a building or a statue. It's usually made to help artists or designers plan and visualize their work.

When people talk about maquettes, they're often referring to the scale models you see in architecture offices or art studios. These small models are used to test out ideas and get a sense of how something will look before it's built or created on a larger scale. Architects might make a maquette of a skyscraper to figure out its proportions and layout, while sculptors might create a maquette of a statue to see how the different parts fit together. Sometimes, artists even sell their original maquettes as pieces of art in themselves, which can be quite valuable.