The art of wax modelling or ceroplastics has an ancient origin, from early Egyptian, Greek and Roman times. It was re-discovered between the 13th - 14th centuries in Florence with the cult of votive offerings; with the advent of Neoclassicism it extended into a more scientific environment, flourishing in the study of normal and pathological anatomy, obstetrics, zoology and botany. On the 7th and 8th June 2019, the 2nd edition of the International Congress on Wax Modelling took place in the University of Padua. The meeting followed that held in September 2017 at the Gordon Museum of Pathology, King's College London. In June 2019, the major institutions related to the art of Wax Modelling met again in Padua; the congress was divided into two study days dedicated to the history, conservation, restoration and technique of this ancient art, which has recently come back into vogue. The event was organised by the University of Padua, under the patronage of CAM - University Centre for Museums, the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice and the National Association of Scientific Museums (ANMS). This conference proceedings: "The Science of Wax" offers a comprehensive overview of many different aspects of wax modelling, including: History (Major Collections), Anatomy and Science (Anatomical/botanical models), Art and Portraiture (Effigies, Portraits, Waxworks, Funeral Masks, Votive Offerings), Conservation and Restoration (maintaining, cleaning, repairing), Techniques and Contemporary Art.
Foreword
Acknowledgments
History
Andrea Cozza, Giovanni Battista Nardelli, Maurizio Rippa Bonati
The wax models of the gynaecological and obstetric clinic of the University of Padua
Francesco M. Galassi, Elena Percivaldi, Luigi Ingaliso, Veronica Papa, Elena Varotto
Plague: from palæopathology to wax modelling
Nicolò Nicoli Aldini, Emanuele Armocida, Alessandro Ruggeri
Anatomical wax modelling in modern Egypt: Leon Gatineau, his craft and his contribute to ceroplastic technique
Bruno Lastersi, Pascale Pollier, Ann Van de Velde, Bryan Green
Art & Science between Life & Death
Alfons Zarzoso, José Pardo-Tomás
Travelling exhibitions and wax makers on the move: anatomies in early 19th-century Barcelona
Collections and discoveries
Laurens de Rooy
What Ziegler did not provide – the embryological plate models of the laboratory of anatomist Lodewijk Bolk
Francesco Loy, Michela Isola
Further anatomical findings in the wax models of Susini and Boi at the University of Cagliari
CONTENTS
Fabio Zampieri, Giovanni Magno, Alberto Zanatta
The anatomical waxes in the early stage of smallpox vaccinations
Alfons Zarzoso, Chloe Sharpe
Wax models in Barcelona: from university anatomical sculptors to makers of dermatological waxworks
Alessandro Porro, Paolo Maria Galimberti, Daniela Bellettati,Bruno Falconi, Lorenzo Lorusso, Antonia Francesca Franchini
Scientific ceroplasty in Milan: new research acquisitions
Laura Faustini, Stefania Lotti
The teaching of phytoparasitology in the collections of the Istituto Tecnico Toscano of Florence
Roberta Ballestriero, Fausto Barbagli, Stefania Lotti
Italian fungi models: a teaching aid to avoid mushroom poisoning in the XIX century
Moulages
Eva Åhrén, Sabina Carraro
Reviving a neglected collection through collaborative knowledge production: the case of the Stockholm moulages
Thomas Schnalke
Finger Faces. Wax Hand Models and Moulages in Medicine
Amaya Maruri Palacín, David Aranda Gabrielli
Following the tracks of the past: The recuperation of the Olavide Museum
Michael Sticherling
Dermatological moulages – the artists behind the objects
Restoration - Conservation
Martina Raudino, Giuseppe Pieraccini, Monica Galeotti, Claudia Corti, Moira Ambrosi The degradation of the anatomical wax models of “La Specola” Museum as a result of a demixing process
Lucia Corrain, Ottavia Mosca
Anna Morandi: Bolognese ceroplastics between practice and theory
Laura Cunningham
Waxing and Waning: The curious case of an early Eaton’s wax display mannequin
Arts and artists
Roberta Ballestriero, Marco Tosa
From the Doge’s funeral masks to the ‘children with no names’. The art of wax modelling in Venice
Konrad Schlegel
Wax Artefacts in the Kunstkammer of Archduke Ferdinand II (1529-1595) at Ambras Castle
Sharon Hecker
Cast, Not Modelled: The Importance of Understanding Materials and Processes in Medardo Rosso’s Waxes
Marco Antonio Miranda Razo
Rescue of ancient pigments for the current ceroplastic technique, performed by the Mexican artisan Marco A. Miranda
Eleanor Crook
A new sculpture Commission for the Wellcome Galleries of Medicine, Science Museum London
The future of ceroplastics
Elena Corradini, Chiara Mascardi Rethinking and reinterpreting the 18th – 19th century wax models of the Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia’s Museum Centre (In studiis artistarum project).
Nuria Díaz, Nuria Galland
A CAPITE AD CALCEM. Anatomical models become the face of a literary and multimedia project
Fulvio Barbaro, Giusy Di Conza, Giulia Toscani, Manuela Antoniel, Pietro Setti, Elena Caddeo, Enrico Quarantini, Marco Quarantini, Marina Gorreri, Roberto Toni
The masks of Lorenzo Tenchini at the University of Parma: their legacy to the modern concepts of facial transplantation,
additive layer manufacturing, and facial recognition algorithms
Kimberly Johnson Ceroplasty’s Future: The Plastinates of Gunther von Hagens’ Body Worlds and the Visual Language of Modernity
Illustrations
Annex
Congress Programme
Scienza e sapienza nella tradizione preippocratica
A Journey through Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Pre-Hispanic America, and Greece
Un’esperienza italiana nella lotta alla pandemia COVID-19 (marzo - giugno 2020)
The Quartecentenary Biography
Marcello Malpighi, Antonio Maria Valsalva e Giovanni Battista Morgagni
