SOME ASPECTS OF THE CONSERVATION OF WAX MODELS

Abstract

During the Italian Renaissance wax was used to produce polychrome relief portraits on a miniature scale. This use of wax as a material for finished sculpture was subsequently adapted to the production of tableaux, of anatomical models, of life-size wax-works and of wax dolls. This article gives a brief account of the techniques of this type of sculpture and describes problems of conservation and restoration. Methods of repairing, cleaning and restoration are discussed, and the article concludes with a full account of the restoration work carried out on an allegorical tableau by Gaetano Zumbo and on two 17th-century ecclesiastical dolls.