A wax sculpture is a sculpture made in wax. 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."
The cost of making a wax sculpture can be between USD150,000 to 300,000.
Read more about Wax Sculpture: Use in Moulage, Wax Museums, Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words wax and/or sculpture:
“We have progressively improved into a less spiritual species of tenderness—but the seal is not yet fixed though the wax is preparing for the impression.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Ah, to build, to build!
That is the noblest art of all the arts.
Painting and sculpture are but images,
Are merely shadows cast by outward things
On stone or canvas, having in themselves
No separate existence. Architecture,
Existing in itself, and not in seeming
A something it is not, surpasses them
As substance shadow.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)