- Key People:
- Patience Wright
- Marie Tussaud
- Related Topics:
- Sculpture
Wax sculpture
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What is a wax sculpture?
A wax sculpture involves creating figures from beeswax through modeling or molding, often serving as preliminary models or forms for metal casting. Beeswax is suitable for this purpose because it is easily shaped at normal temperatures, melts into a clear liquid when heated, mixes well with coloring agents, and can be modified with oils, fats, and earthy materials to achieve the desired texture.
Wax modeling gained prominence during the Renaissance in Italy and was employed by masters. Michelangelo and Giovanni da Bologna used wax models as preliminary sketches for their statues.
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What materials are wax sculptures made from?
Wax sculptures are made from various materials, including beeswax, synthetic waxes, clay, plaster, concrete, and fibreglass.
Historically, beeswax was favored for its pliability and ability to mix with coloring. Today, synthetic waxes have largely replaced beeswax. Wax is often used for preliminary modeling for metal casting or sketches. While not durable enough for large, permanent works, wax is suitable for smaller pieces.
Other materials like clay and plaster are used for creating models that are then cast in more durable materials like metal, concrete, or fibreglass. Fibreglass is reinforced with glass fibre laminations, resulting in a strong, lightweight shell. Concrete, a mixture of aggregate and cement, is suitable for large outdoor sculptures due to its durability and design flexibility.
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How are wax sculptures created?
Wax sculptures are created through modeling or molding, using beeswax to produce finished figures or create preliminary models for metal casting. Beeswax is ideal because it's easily cut and shaped at room temperature, melts into a clear liquid when heated, mixes well with colors, and can be modified with oils, fats, and earthy materials.
Methods for Creating Wax Sculptures
- Modeling This involves building up the form by hand using plastic materials. Clay and wax are the most common materials, with the artist's hands as the primary tools, though wood and metal implements can also be used.
- Casting Casting and molding are used either for making copies of existing sculptures or as essential stages in the production of a finished work. The lost-wax process is a traditional method of casting metal sculpture that uses a wax model to create a mold. Once the mold is made, the wax model is melted and drained away.
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What tools do artists use to shape and detail wax sculptures?
Wax sculpture involves shaping beeswax to create figures or models, often for metal casting or preliminary sketches.
Artists manipulate wax with their hands and employ metal and wood tools for shaping and detailing. At room temperature, beeswax is easily cut and formed; when heated, it becomes a fluid and mixes well with coloring. The texture and consistency of wax can be altered by combining it with oils, fats, or earthy materials.
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Where are wax sculptures commonly displayed or used?
Wax sculptures have a rich history and diverse applications. In ancient times, they served as religious figures in Egyptian funeral rites and Greek ceremonies, as well as Roman ancestral masks displayed ceremonially.
During the Renaissance, wax was essential for creating models for bronze medals and preliminary sketches for sculptures. Today, you can find wax figures in exhibitions, with Madame Marie Tussaud's in London being the most famous permanent display.
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How has the art of wax sculpture changed or developed over time?
Wax sculpture has evolved significantly over time, with its use and techniques varying across different periods and cultures.
Initially, wax figures served ritualistic and commemorative purposes, such as in ancient Egyptian funerary rites and Roman ancestral masks. During the Renaissance, wax modeling became crucial for creating bronze medals and preliminary statue sketches by masters like Michelangelo. The 17th century saw the rise of polychromatic wax reliefs, especially in Spain and Italy, with Gaetano Giulio Zumbo creating artistic, religious, and anatomical models.
In the 18th century, wax portrait medallions gained popularity, and exhibitions of waxworks, like those of Marie Tussaud, became widespread. Today, while synthetic waxes have largely replaced traditional formulas, wax remains essential for preliminary modeling in metal casting using the lost-wax process.
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Wax sculpture, the preparation of finished figures in beeswax by modelling or molding or the use of such figures as a form for casting metal or creating preliminary models. At ordinary temperatures beeswax can be cut and shaped with facility; it melts to a limpid fluid at a low heat; it mixes with any colouring matter and takes surface tints well; and its texture and consistency may be modified by a number of earthy matters as well as by the addition of oils or fats.
Wax figures of deities were used in the funeral rites of the ancient Egyptians and deposited in their graves; many of these are now in museums. Among the ancient Greeks wax figures were used largely as dolls for children. Statuettes of deities were also modelled for votive offerings and religious ceremonies, and wax images to which magical properties were attributed were treasured by the people. Wax figures and models held a still more important place among the Romans. The masks (effigies, or imagines) of ancestors, modelled in wax, were preserved by patrician families and were displayed on ceremonial occasions and carried in funeral processions. The closing days of the Saturnalia were known as Sigillaria because of the custom of making, toward the end of the festival, presents of wax models of fruit and waxen statuettes that were fashioned by the sigillarii, manufacturers of small figures in wax and other media. The practice of wax modelling can be traced through the Middle Ages, when votive offerings of wax figures were made to churches, and the memories of monarchs and great personages were preserved by wax masks. Malice and superstition were also expressed in the formation of wax images of hated persons, into the bodies of which long pins were thrust in the hope that deadly injury would be induced in the person represented. Belief in this form of black magic never died out completely.
With the Renaissance in Italy, modelling in wax took a position of high importance, and it was practiced by some of the greatest of the early masters. The bronze medals of Pisanello and other famous medallists owe their value to the art qualities of the wax models from which they were cast by the cire-perdue (lost-wax) process. Wax models were also used by such great sculptors as Michelangelo and Giovanni da Bologna in making preliminary sketches for their statues. Wax medallion portraits were popular during the 16th century, and Antonio Abondio earned considerable celebrity as a practitioner of this form of art, working principally in Vienna and Prague at the imperial court.
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During the 17th century the polychromatic wax relief came into favour, especially in Spain and Italy. The most ambitious and successful sculptor to make reliefs of this type was Gaetano Giulio Zumbo, a Sicilian. In addition to artistic and religious works, he produced, in collaboration with the French surgeon Desnoues, anatomical models in wax—a new invention for which both men subsequently claimed the credit.
During the 18th century wax portrait medallions enjoyed renewed popularity. The foremost English practitioner was Isaac Gosset. Toward the end of the 18th century John Flaxman executed in wax many portraits and other relief figures, which Josiah Wedgwood translated into pottery for his jasperware. Exhibitions of waxworks were popular in the 18th century and have continued to be so. An exhibition of waxworks with mechanical motions was shown in Germany early in the 18th century and is described by Sir Richard Steele in the Tatler. The most famous permanent exhibition is that of (Mme) Marie Tussaud in London.