This book, “Ceroplastics, the Science of Wax”, is the second of a series dedicated to ceroplastics and is the conference proceedings of the second International Congress on Wax Modelling held in Italy in 2019.

The aim of the congresses is to promote the study of ceroplastics in relationship with science, medicine, and art, by organising international symposia in locations where the discipline has flourished and is still practiced in some of its different applications.
The first book, “Ceroplastics, the Art of Wax” (Rome 2019), was the result of the congress held in September 2017 at the Gordon Museum of Pathology, Kings College London, organised by Dr Roberta Ballestriero.

The second congress, which is the source of material for this book, was held in June 2019 at the Padova Institute of Pathology, Italy, where the Morgagni Museum of Pathological Anatomy. The museum is dedicated to the figure of Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682-1771), who is universally known as the father of pathology and the anatomoclinical method. Morgagni demonstrated that clinical symptoms might be specifically correlated to the state of the internal organs through the practice of autopsy. It is significant that exactly in the period of Morgagni’s achievements ceroplastics found its way in medical sciences. Anatomists and physicians, with the help of artists, extensively used this technique to reproduce not only the normal structures of the human bodies, but also specific disease’s appearances both of the most common and rare conditions.

The University of Padua Medical School indeed was therefore the ideal place to organise the second congress. Additionally, this book is published in 2022, when Padua University celebrates eight centuries of existence (1222-2022), which testifies to an extraordinary tradition of studies in all the branches of science and humanities.

The event was organised under the patronage of CAM – Padua University Centre for Museums, the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, and the National Association of Scientific Museums (ANMS). The book is the result of a significant participation which offers a comprehensive overview of many different aspects of wax modelling, including: History (Major Collections), Anatomy and Science (Anatomical/botanical models), Art and Portraiture (Effigies, Portraits, Waxworks, Funeral Masks, Votive Offerings), Conservation and Restoration (maintaining, cleaning, repairing), and Techniques and Contemporary Art. We believe that the wide range of subjects covered in this is book proves how rich and multifaceted the study and the practice of the discipline is.



Ceroplastics. The Science of Wax
Edited by Roberta Ballestriero, Owen Burke, Fabio Zampieri
Publisher:L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER
ISBN: 9788891320278
Hardcover. Pages: 372.
Dimensions: 16.5 x 23.8 cm