From a Noble Substance to an Imitative Body. The Picture and the Meaning of Wax Figures in a Votive Gesture

Abstract

In a rich arsenal of votive gifts wax ones undoubtedly deserve a special attention. They were common as soon as early Middle Ages and they were used until the 20th century. There was a variety of such votes, starting with candles, through lumps of wax, and ending with full-scale wax figures that started being used as a votive gesture at the break of the 13th and 14th centuries in the north of Europe. In the 15th and 16th centuries this custom became popular among the wealthy German, Austrian and Italian noblemen. Making wax votive figures took a lot of skill so they were made by specially qualified artists (in Italy wax figures called “Boti” were produced by sculptors called “Cerajuoli” or “Fallimagini”). Religious orders collaborated with the artists-artisans, undertaking to supply wax, whereas the artisans prepared wooden frames, natural hair, glass eyes, paints, textiles and brocade. In the next centuries the production of wax votes developed ever more dynamically, especially in the north of Europe, with less skilled wax modelers, artisans and gingerbread bakers often being their producers. The latter ones mainly made smaller wax figures, cast or squeezed from two-part concave models (this type of votes in its form and type reminded of figures made of gingerbread).

Wax votive figures (especially of children aged three to twelve) founded at the area of Upper and Lower Franconia (the Bamberg and Würzburg Dioceses) from the middle of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century are a separate and rather unusual phenomenon. Popularity of this votive gesture became stable about 1880, in the years 1900-1910 it reached its climax; and in the 1950s it came to an end. Franconian votes were always constructed in a similar way: they had wax faces and hands (more rarely feet), and the other members were made of wood, metal and some other padding materials. Dolls were a dominating model for the production of these votes, and that is why, like dolls, they had wigs made of natural hair on their heads, glass eyes and open mouths. A very important role was played by clothing, in which figures were willingly dressed; they were children’s natural, real clothes (girls were often dressed in the First Communion dresses); moreover, the votes had complete clothing, which means they had genuine underwear, tights, leather shoes. The figures were supplied with rosaries and bouquets held in their hands, and on the heads of girls there were garlands.

The figures were put in cabinets and glass cases, sometimes with wallpaper on the back wall, and they had a longer text on the front glass with the name of the child, or possibly of its parents, and the time when the figure was offered.

Despite the many features making the Franconian votes different from votive figures from other regions, all these object are joined by a timeless and universal idea, in which – quoting H. Belting – “an artificial body has assumed the religious representation of a living body (…)”.