Technique and technology of making Bavarian wax sculpturesin 18th century Landshut workshop. A case study of the wax sculpture of Our Lady of the Bowed Head from the collection of National Museum in Poznań, Poland

Abstract

Technique and technology of making Bavarian wax sculptures
in 18th century Landshut workshop. A case study of the wax sculpture of Our Lady of the Bowed Head from the collection of National Museum in Poznań, Poland

In 1930 National Museum in Poznań, Poland, acquired a polychrome wax relief of unrecognized artisan technology, unknown provenance and uncertain iconography, depicting a bust of the Virgin Mary emerging from dark clouds. This article presents the results of research undertaken over eighty years later, resulting in a stunning discovery of a long-lost piece from a highly specialized workshop in a small town of Landshut, Bavaria, Germany. In cooperation with German and Swiss specialists, researchers from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, determined a complex crafting technology of such artworks and classifid the analysed relief as one of its few remaining examples. Utilising available research methods, such as UV / IR colour imaging, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Gas Chromatography, followed by micro sampling and petrographic tests, it was possible to identify pigments and dyers used in polychrome layers as well as the composition of each particular wax layer, and inner structure of the object including armatures of wood and cork or spherical glass-blown balls used as eyes. The crucial part of the project were non-invasive analyses resulting in identifiation of rare pigments and dyes which were diffiult to identify with other means. These methods were combined with micro sampling, which led to discovery of ground minerals and fires in the polychrome layers. This paper focuses on the importance of the non-invasive analysis in the complicated process of diagnostics of artworks and emphasise their fundamental role in the overall conservation process.