The seventeenth century saw a marked increase in wax sculptures across Europe. Capable of producing powerful, realistic representations of the human form and anatomy, wax was used to create anatomical models, effigies, portraits, and tableaux celebrating themes of man's mortality.
Davide Stefanacci argues that a common theme runs through seventeenth-century wax sculptures: a preoccupation with death. Through wax representations, Europeans could achieve immortality-of a sort. The grim realism the medium was capable of representing was used to promote meditative thought while the sculpture's ability to move was quickly recognized by a Catholic Church eager to control lives and keep order during the Counter-Reformation.
Stefanacci combines the study of noncanonical works of art with an examination of the social crises gripping seventeenth-century Europe to interpret the intention and effect of wax sculptures in unprecedented ways. He sheds light on the previously overlooked use of sculptural polychromatic representations in wax and makes the compelling case that, by interpreting wax sculptures as representations of life, art history has neglected the concrete and powerful presence of death in seventeenth-century life.
Straightforward in style and compelling in scope, The Vision of Death challenges accepted views on the intent and impact of European wax sculpture.
About the Author: Davide Stefanacci earned his master of letters in the history of art and art-world practice from the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He was responsible for the curatorial development of Michael Lloyd-Lyricism in Silver hosted by the Goldsmith's Company, London.
Stefanacci contributed research to the Frick Collection's upcoming publication Fame and Immortality: The Scher Collection of Portrait Medals and presented The Appreciation of Contemporary Art: Collecting Guercino in the Seventeenth Century at the Renaissance Society of America conference in New Orleans.
Stefanacci is a patron of the College Art Association and a Fellow of the Frick Collection. He is a member of both the Renaissance Society of America and the Rome Art History Network. He speaks Italian, English, and French and spent four years investigating European archives and collections while researching The Vision of Death.
