Manufacturing techniques and the art of wax modellingfrom the sculptor's studio to the anatomical workshop

  1. Alicia Sánchez Ortiz
  2. Sandra Micó Boró
Libro:
Making and Transforming Art: Technology and Interpretation
  1. Helene Dubois (ed. lit.)
  2. Joyce H. Townsend (ed. lit.)
  3. Jilleen Nadolny (ed. lit.)
  4. Sigrid Eyb-Green (ed. lit.)
  5. Sylvie Neven (ed. lit.)
  6. Stefanos Kroustallis (ed. lit.)

Editorial: Archetype

ISBN: 9781909492165

Año de publicación: 2014

Páginas: 86-94

Congreso: Symposium of Committee for Conservation Working Group for Art Technological Source Research (5. 2012. Bruselas)

Tipo: Aportación congreso

Resumen

Wax modelling gained the status of an art from in the 15th century, and the process was perfected in Florence in the 17th century. Towards the end of that century, artists and modellers worked together to produce accurate wax models for the teaching of anatomy. Similar methods were adopted in Spain, where the collection of wax models used at the Royal College of Surgeons of San Carlos, founded in 1787 and now housed in the Complutense University of Madrid, is of very high quality. This paper discusses the documentary sources relevant to the practice in Italy, a single surviving Spanish source, the bleaching of beeswax, the meaning of the term 'Punic wax', the recipes used for modelling wax, and the carefully guarded, standardised methods of colouring wax for anatomical models.