Ephemeral Bodies: Wax Sculpture And The Human Figure

by Roberta Panzanelli, Editor
Getty Publications, Los Angeles, CA, 2008
352 pp, 34 colour and 93 halftone illus. Trade, $49.95
ISBN: 978-0-89236-877-8.

Reviewed by Kathryn Adams
Australia

kathy@pacific.net.au



“Partly mechanical art, partly artisanal enterprise, wax making has often skirted the margins of ‘true’ artistic endeavour…” Roberta Panzanelli.

Many of us have taken a jaunt through one of Madame Tussaud’s wax museums at some stage to marvel and ogle at the often haunting likeness between the person represented and the effigy standing before us. These widely acknowledged displays of human replication have served as both entertainment and social comment for centuries, but not so well known is the rich and chequered history of wax sculpture. Roberta Panzanelli, art historian, Senior Research Specialist at the Getty Research Institute and editor of Ephemeral Bodies gathers together eight essays by prominent art historians, including one of her own, that impart a wealth of knowledge on wax as a medium and the artists and scholars who have succumbed to its ambiguous qualities.

This compilation of impressive essays, which includes the first English translation of Viennese art historian Julius von Schlosser’s influential “History of Portraiture in Wax”, traces the history of wax figures from the civilizations of antiquity through to modern day. In ancient societies, death masks were made for the deceased and wax statuettes of deities were modelled for votive offerings and religious ceremonies. 14th-17th century France saw wax figures, dressed in ceremonial robes, replace the real bodies of deceased nobles for the populace to honour during funerary processions. And interestingly, it was during the Renaissance in Europe that wax sculpting became considered as high art and the early masters revered. This illustrious period was short-lived, however, and through these essays we see why the art of wax sculpture lost its place as an esteemed art form and has become noted more for its entertainment value.

“Renaissance literature praised wax making and lamented its decline as a great loss.” Roberta Panzanelli, p5.

Of special interest are the essays covering 18th century anatomical and obstetric waxes, used for scientific and medical research in place of cadavers, the wax phalli of Isernia and Medardo Rosso’s wax sculptures made around the end of the 19th century. Sharon Hecker, in her essay titled Fleeting Revelations, considers Rosso’s belief “…that sculpture could somehow be simultaneously fleeting and lasting,” and by using wax this was possible as “his wax sculptures threaten to melt away before our eyes, yet they last.” p132.

Listed here are the essay titles and their authors as they appear in Ephemeral Bodies that give a concise view of the range and calibre of the topics covered.

“Compelling Presence” – Wax Effigies in Renaissance Florence
Roberta Panzanelli

“Wax Fibres, Wax Bodies And Moving Figures” – Artifice and Nature in Eighteenth-Century Anatomy
Joan B Landes

“Almost Alive” – The Spectacle of Verisimilitude in Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks
Uta Kornmeier

“On Waxes And Wombs” – Eighteenth-Century Representations of the Gravid Uterus
Lyle Massey

“Wax Tokens Of Libido” – William Hamilton, Richard Payne Knight, and the Phalli of Isernia
Whitney Davis

“Fleeting Revelations” – The Demise of Duration in Medardo Rosso’s Wax Sculpture
Sharon Hecker

“Viscosities And Survivals” – Art History Put to the Test by the Material
Georges Didi- Huberman

“History Of Portraiture In Wax” (“Geschichte der Porträtbildnerei in Wachs,” 1910-11)
Julius von Schlosser; translated by James Michael Loughridge

Although the book’s layout feels dated, each essay includes extensive notes and fascinating illustrations. Both alluring and unsettling at times, the chosen illustrations cover the gamut - royal busts, phallic ex-votos, Rosso’s serene sculptural pieces, Madame Tussaud’s gory death heads (Marie Antoinette and Co), and the anatomical waxes of, for example, Honoré Fragonard (1732-99), whose Man with a Mandible appears with this caption - ‘…human cadaver held together with wire, pins, plaster of paris and injected with coloured waxes, coated with varnish.’ This method was employed in order to highlight the body’s complex network of arteries and veins – most macabre!

With a comprehensive index for text, illustrations, and plates this book would be an asset to any academic or public library. Panzanelli notes in her introduction that “the history of wax is a history of disappearance – transformed, softened, liquefied, and sometimes lost forever…” Fortunately, the extensive knowledge presented here captures the transient nature of wax and retains it within these pages for readers to appreciate.