The art of wax at the Uffizi

Until April 12, the Uffizi Gallery is hosting an unusual exhibition entirely dedicated to the art of wax modelling in Florence between the 16th and 17th centuries.

Over ninety works (waxes, but also paintings, sculptures, cameos and semi-precious stones) once collected by the Medici family illustrate this ancient technique that combines art, devotion and science. While the oldest artistic use of wax can be traced back to the “lost wax” technique used in bronze casting, and while it was frequently used in the Renaissance for funeral masks (such as that of Lorenzo the Magnificent, transposed into plaster and on display in the exhibition) and in groups of refined polychrome waxes, it was only in the Baroque period that it reached the height of perfection. From the 17th century onwards, this technique proved ideal for illustrating - with surprising realism, between art and science - the human anatomy in all its details (including internal ones) and its stages, not excluding those of disease and decomposition.

The undisputed master of this discipline was Gaetano Zumbo, a Sicilian artist who worked at the Medici court from 1690. The last room of the exhibition is dedicated to him, with extraordinary, astonishing depictions that literally leave you breathless.

The exhibition Once Upon a Time: The Medici and the Art of Ceroplastics is held in the new exhibition spaces of the Uffizi Gallery, west wing