The Dead in Wax: Funeral Ceroplastics in the European 17Th-18Th Century Tradition

ROBERTA BALLESTRIERO ♦ THE DEAD IN WAX: FUNERAL CEROPLASTICS IN THE EUROPEAN 17TH-18TH CENTURY TRADITION There is in the Abbey a somewhat disconcerting tendency, to which one has to become accustomed, for inanimate objects to move and at length to reappear in a different place.1 Westminster Occasional Paper, December 1973 Wax was known and used for numerous purposes since ancient times by the Egyptians, Greeks and Ro- mans. It was also used for encaustic painting, but the first known use of wax for modeling was the sculpt- ing of bronze and jewelry with the lost-wax casting process (cire perdue). This process consisted of pour- ing the melted metal between two layers of refractory material divided by a layer of wax, which was then eliminated and substituted by the metal itself. The particular physical and chemical characteristics of 10 Art of Death & Dying Symposium Proceedings wax, such as malleability, resistance to atmos- (pupae) are likely to date back to this period, or pheric factors, the possibility of accepting paint, perhaps even to the times of ancient Greece, and all justify the interest in choosing to adopt this ma- are testimony to an art which survived until the terial to create a wide variety of figures and por- nineteenth century.5 The earliest evidence of fu- traits. The high burning potential of the material neral heads was discovered in 1852 in a Roman explains the use of wax figures in religious and grave in Cumae. Two skeletons were found, with magic rituals. This type of figure was in use in an- wax heads, colored glass eyes and traces of natural cient Greece and remained popular up until the hair. The male head was preserved in the National introduction of photography. The advantageous Museum of Naples, while the female disintegrated characteristics of wax have led to the use of this in situ.6 The museum guide of 1876 suggested that material over the centuries for numerous pur- these bodies belonged to persecuted Christians poses: – funeral masks, – wax models, sketches, – from the earliest days of Christianity.7 portraits, – wax votive offerings, – anatomical wax modeling, – waxworks. From pre-Christian times to the present day wax The main characteristic of wax is that it is was also the most suitable material to make votive capable of achieving a remarkable mimetic like- offerings and ex voto images, not only thanks to ness superior to other materials. It is flexible, easy its resemblance to human skin, but also for its to work, can be colored, and can be adorned with plasticity and reasonably low price. The offering of organic materials such as body-hair, hair, teeth objects to a divinity or saint to ask for a grace (pro- and nails. The versatility, flexibility and above all pitiatory ex voto), or to give thanks for a received its amazing mimetic capacity (and also the fact grace (gratulatory ex voto) is an ancient custom; that wax resembles so remarkably human flesh), the objects were generally placed at pilgrimage explain why wax was used to create funeral masks sites, churches, chapels and shrines.8 and effigies. In fact, funeral masks were produced Votive offerings could be of any kind but from an early age and since the 14th century be- were often reproduced parts of the human body, came widely used in the West, confirming the ma- representing healthy or diseased organs. In Flor- cabre tendency of the art of Ceroplastics. ence, from the 13th to the 17th century, the dona- Lysippus and Lysistratos of Sikyon, two tion of votive offerings was so common that it cre- brothers who lived in the fourth century B.C., ated a real industry of ex votos in different materi- were renowned in Greece as skilled sculptors and als but especially in wax. Votive offerings of all portraitists; indeed, Pliny reports that the idea of kinds were present in different Florentine obtaining a “mask” produced from a direct plaster churches but especially in the church of SS. An- cast of a face into which molten wax was poured nunziata. The anatomical votive offerings pro- originated with Lysistratos.2 The ancient Romans gressed to life-sized statues. Nobles, Florentine as created masks and images of the deceased in wax well as foreigners, commissioned life-sized figures to keep in the atrium or in niches. During funer- of themselves in colored wax. These were dressed als, effigies were laid on the parade bed, while por- in their own clothes and then offered to the Santis- traits of the ancestors were carried in processions sima Annunziata as an act of devotion. to accompany the newly deceased.3 They were These ‘bóti’, as they were known in the Flor- then laid to rest and adorned with laurel wreaths entine vernacular, were present in nearly all for festivities and special celebrations.4 churches in Florence, but in the church of the SS. Only the rich were in a position to commis- Annunziata they became a major feature, turning sion such figures, although wax statues of allegori- the sanctuary into an enormous museum of wax cal subjects or gods (lares) could be found in the figures of all types that included body parts as well houses of all social classes. Dolls with a wax face as whole figures. This practice ended in 1786 11 Art of Death & Dying Symposium Proceedings when the reforms made by Leopold II, Holy Ro- bration where a three-dimensional effigy was man Emperor from 1790 to 1792, ordered the placed on the coffin is an ancient custom and was clergy to free the churches of all votive offerings; first documented in England in 1327 for Edward the remaining waxes were melted down to make II, and then in France for Charles VI in 1422.13 candles.9 The effigy was regularly used for the burials The fact that wax allowed the creation of re- of the English and French royals and it played an markably similar figures linked this material to important role in the funerary protocol, overshad- portraits and funerary effigies. In fact, replacing owing the real corpse. This custom reached ex- the real body with a waxen image was practical. tremes in 16th century Europe. In France in 1514 at This habit, which started with the Greeks and Ro- the death of Anne of Brittany, wife of Louis XII, mans, was necessary because of the duration of the effigy was served sumptuous meals. The same the funeral and sometimes because of the time be- treatment was reserved for the effigy of Francis I tween the death and the funeral itself. In Latin of France in 1547.14 Interestingly, with Francis I, Christianity from the beginning of the 13th cen- the corpse was separated from the wax effigy and tury, the exhibition of the dead showing the face adorned with the royal insignia during the funeral became intolerable. Therefore the body was closed procession. The mortal remains preceded the cor- in the coffin immediately after the death. From tege while the effigy advanced in the position of the 14th century, the body was removed from inclu- honor at the back surrounded by the dignitaries, sion in the ceremony. That did not express a de- leaving the corpse virtually alone.15 sire for anonymity. Indeed, at the funerals of im- The first effigy in Venice was used in 1485 portant people, the hidden body was replaced by a when Doge Giovanni Mocenigo, killed by the replica in wood or wax. Artists therefore tried to plague, was buried in haste and in secret as a re- obtain the greatest possible similarity by taking a sult of the development of the disease in the city. cast just after death to create a mask. The faces of Until then the funerals of doges had been charac- these statues became death masks.10 terized by modesty; from that moment effigies were used occasionally, usually at the request of According to Giorgio Vasari, in his “Life of Andrea the dying man.16 In 1612, the austere Leonardo del Verrocchio”, wax masks, portraits and effigies Donà was the first doge who did not want to be em- were very rough/clumsy “...o vero di cera e goffi balmed, and he was buried privately the same affatto...”. Apparently it was thanks to Verrocchio, night he died. The body was replaced by a wax ef- who was taking plaster casts from nature, that this figy for the rituals, which lasted several days, in art improved. Thanks to Verrocchio’s innovations, the Doge’s Palace and in the church of Santi a new custom developed in Florence and death Giovanni e Paolo. Likewise doge Antonio Priuli masks started to appear in every Florentine house stated in his will that he did not want to be em- on fireplaces, doors and windows.11 Eventually the balmed and that a ‘figure’ be placed on the litter, tradition of funeral masks and effigies declined in as for his predecessor Leonardo Donà.17 Julius von Florence but the custom continued in France, Schlosser, in his “History of portraiture in wax” of probably until the 17th century not only as part of 1911, stresses the importance of the resemblance the royal ceremonies, but also of the nobility. between the real person and the portrait. Death In France the custom slowly disappeared masks provided a rapid and effective way of achiev- with the Enlightenment, but the English royalty ing this likeness successively copied it at funerals. In Venice, an Currently in Venice there are a number of funeral analogous ceremony was in use from the 17th cen- masks kept in storage at the Museo Correr.

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