Восковые фигуры: история и техника создания.

A wax sculpture is a depiction made using a waxy substance. Often these are effigies, usually of a notable individual, but there are also death masks and scenes with many figures, mostly in relief. The properties of beeswax make it an excellent medium for preparing figures and models, either by modeling or by casting in molds. It can easily be cut and shaped at room temperature, melts at a low temperature, mixes with any coloring matter, takes surface tints well, and its texture and consistency may be modified by the addition of earthy matters and oils or fats. When molten, it is highly responsive to impressions from a mold and, once it sets and hardens, its form is relatively resilient against ordinary temperature variations, even when it is cast in thin laminae. These properties have seen wax used for modelling since the Middle Ages and there is testimony for it having been used for making masks (particularly death masks) in ancient Rome. The death masks of illustrious ancestors would be displayed by the elite holding the right of "ius imaginem."

Figures in wax of their deities were used in the funeral rites of the ancient Egyptians, and deposited among other offerings in their graves; many of these are now preserved in museums. That the Egyptians also modelled fruits can be learned from numerous allusions in early literature. Among the Greeks during their best art period, wax figures were largely used as dolls for children; statuettes of deities were modelled for votive offerings and for 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 ancient Romans. The masks (effigies or imagines) of ancestors, modelled in wax, were preserved by patrician families, this jus imaginum being one of the privileges of the nobles, and these masks were exposed to view on ceremonial occasions, and carried in their funeral processions. The closing days of the Saturnalia were known as [[Sigillaria (ancient Rome), on account of the custom of making, towards the end of the festival, presents of wax models of fruits and waxen statuettes which were fashioned by the Sigillarii. Nelson's effigy was a pure tourist attraction, commissioned the year after his death in 1805, and his burial in St Paul's Cathedral after a government decision that major public figures should in future be buried there. Concerned for their revenue from visitors, the Abbey decided it needed a rival attraction for admirers of Nelson.

The practice of wax modelling can be traced through the Middle Ages, when votive offerings of wax figures were made to churches. The memory and lineaments of monarchs and great personages were preserved by means of wax masks. The bronze medallions of Pisanello, Francesco Francia and of the other famous medalists owe their value to the properties of wax: all early bronzes and metalwork were cast from wax models first. The Victoria and Albert Museum has a wax 'Descent from the Cross' by Jacopo Sansovino which was probably used by painters Perugino and del Sarto as well as a small study of a slave by Michelangelo and several wax pieces by Giambologna. Particularly noteworthy is his 'Florence Triumphant over Pisa'
modello. The Royal Collection's red chalk écorché attributed to Michelangelo is considered as a drawing of a wax model like those Michelangelo himself made. The British Museum has a wax portrait medallion of Michelangelo made from life in 1560 by Leone Leoni. Two wax modelli by Baccio Bandinelli still exist, one of 'Hercules and Cacus' (Bode Museum, Berlin, Ident. Nr. 2612) and the other of Neptune (Musée Fabre, Montpellier). The Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence has the only surviving wax modello by Benvenuto Cellini, 'Perseo con la testa di Medusa' (inv. cere, n.424), a study for his bronze statue at the Loggia dei Lanzi. The Rijksmuseum has the 'Genius of Cosimo I de' Medici', a modello in red wax by Bartolomeo Ammannati.

There are a number of very high quality wax figures from the 16th and 17th centuries, mostly portrait figures and religious or mythological scenes, often with many figures. Antonio Abondio (1538–91) pioneered the coloured wax portrait miniature in relief, working mainly for the Habsburg and other courts of Northern Europe, and his son Alessandro continued in his footsteps.

Bologna was an important centre for anatomical wax modelling in the 18th century with Ercole Lelli, Giovanni Manzolini and his wife Anna Morandi Manzolini. The Museo di Palazzo Poggi shows a wax portrait of her husband dissecting a heart and one of herself dissecting a brain as well as anatomical models of the eye. The anatomy room also displays a series of figures by Ercole Lelli and a copy of Florentine Clemente Susini’s once famous Medici Venus. The University of Bologna houses the Luigi Cattaneo Anatomical Wax Museum. Patience Wright, was a sculptor of wax figures, and the first recognized American born sculptor. The Royal Collection Trust owns a wax bust of George III by Samuel Percy (1750 1820) and several engravings made after wax portraits like Jean Charles François's portrait of Josephus II (1751) after wax modeller Florian Zeiss (1712–80). Other artists were inspired by wax works by de or Josef Müller (fl.1793). Towards the close of the 18th century, modeling of medallion portraits and of relief groups, the latter frequently polychromatic, was in considerable vogue throughout Europe. Many of the artists were women. John Flaxman executed in wax many portraits and other relief figures which Josiah Wedgwood translated into pottery for his Jasperware.

Wax works, not intended as fine art, subsequently became popular attractions, consisting principally of images of historical or notorious personages, made up of waxen masks on lay figures in which sometimes mechanism is fitted to give motion to the figure. Such an exhibition of wax works with mechanical motions was shown in Germany early in the eighteenth century. Waxworks are frequently made presented by contemporary artists who take advantage of its lifelike and uncanny qualities. While the artist often creates a wax self portrait, there are examples too of imaginary personalities and historical personae. For example, Gavin Turk had his portrait made as Sid Vicious ("Pop", Waxwork in vitrine 279 x 115 x 115 cm, 1993), Jan Fabre as a notorious thief (homage to Jacques Mesrine (Bust) II, 2008. Lifesize. Private collection. ta.) The museum of medieval torture instruments in Amsterdam also used wax figures in order to demonstrate the use of machines and tools of their display.

The modeling of the soft parts of dissections, teaching illustrations of anatomy, was first practised at Florence during the Renaissance. The practice of moulage, or the depiction of human anatomy and different diseases taken from directly casting from the body using (in the early period) gelatine moulds, later alginate or silicone moulds, used wax as its primary material (later to be replaced by latex and rubber). Some moulages were directly cast from the bodies of diseased subjects, others from healthy subjects to which disease features( blisters, sores, growths, rashes) were skilfully applied with wax and pigments. During the 19th century, moulage evolved into three dimensional, realistic representations of diseased parts of the human body. These can be seen in many European medical museums, notably the Spitzner collection currently in Brussels, the Charite Hospital museum in Berlin and the Gordon Museum of Pathology at Guy's Hospital in London.