Art Historical background

Wax proved to be a popular material for the serial production of sculptures of saints during the ancien regime. Some convents (for instance Sisters of Saint-Clare and Carmelites) have made them until recently, but most conserved wax figures date from the 19th and the 20th century. In some convents in Germany, recipes for the preparation of wax were written down ( Abbey of Montorge (Freiburg), Notkersegg (Sankt Gallen) and Eschenbach (Luzerne)). These recipes were for their own use. In this way knowledge could be passed on, besides the fact that objects were exchanged, and certain individuals travelled from monastery to monastery to share their technical knowhow. Wax was bleached first with turpentine, white lead and carmine, which emphasized the sacral meaning of the devotional object. Then, the wax – melted at 80-90 °C - was cast into moulds (either in plaster, wood or ceramics). Depending on the size of the figurine, the moulds consisted of two parts: one part for the front, and another for the back of the figure. Mostly, the provenance of the moulds is difficult to trace, probably, these were not made by the nuns themselves but bought from craftsmen. By the beginning of the 20^th century, moulds for separate parts (hands and heads) were produced, which could be ordered by the convents via catalogues. In France, some secular workshops were also well known for their wax figurines (or "cire habillées"), particularly the workshops in Nancy (for example the brothers Guillot), Angers and Nevers.

In our regions only hands, busts and feet were executed in wax, notably the visible parts of the body. Unlike in Germany where the sculpture was entirely cast including the clothing; the figures were dressed and decorated with silk, small beads, gold and silver metal thread. In Germany, these figurines were a part of the so-called "Klosterarbeit": devotional objects were produced in convents, especially in the women's convents, as part of their religious duties. From the 16^th-17^th century, richly decorated mangers in wax (ichnographically derived from the Birth of Christ) were made; via the convents and courts these objects found their way into popular piety. The devotion of the Christ Child has a long tradition, not in the least in monastic context where statuettes were made in polychrome wood, terracotta or pipe clay. For example, sisters who entered the convent in Germany (17^th-19^th centuries) were expected to donate a statuette of a standing Christ Child (depending on their family income), executed in wax and sometimes dressed in garments of silk and brocade. From the second part of the 19th century on, religious wax sculptures were generally protected by bell jars. According to Knippenberg (1985), the figurines under a bell jar have their roots in 18^th-century devotional cabinets which proved to be popular for private devotion. The dressing (precious textiles) and decoration (dried or self-made flowers) of the saint figurines were done by beguines or nuns. In their turn, these cabinets are derived from the 16^th-century Enclosed Gardens, like the ones in Mechelen. In the first instance, these figurines, whether in a cabinet or under a bell jar, were conceived as a devotion to Our Lady, decorated with flowers and beads. The glass would protect, then, the content from damage or dust.

Material Technical Research

This object includes sequins attached to the figurines. Interestingly, these sequins show very different degradation degree and, based on the observation by naked eye, they can be classified in two groups I) corroded and II) not corroded.

The sequins seem to be made of brass and attached with a nail, which has the same size and the same degradation degree in all the sequins. However, the sequins are placed on different surfaces: sequins from group II are placed in a figurine made of straw covered with a red fabric or in another one made of cardboard covered with a white fabric. On the other hand, the sequins from group II are placed in a figurine of straw covered first with cardboard and with a white fabric on the top. Since all the sequins have a similar shape we assume that they have the same age and, being all of them attached to the same object, we assume that they have been exposed to the same environment (humidity, temperature, type of light, etc). Consequently, the initial hypothesis is that the specific materials where the sequins are attached (microenvironment) have a strong influence in their degradation reactions.

This hypothesis has been verified by the analysis of two differently degraded sequins and the materials where they are attached. Raman spectroscopy will be used to analyze the degradation compounds of the sequins, which allows to characterize a wide range of inorganic materials. FTIR spectroscopy will be used for the materials used to build up the figurines in order to avoid the fluorescence normally associated to organic materials in the Raman spectra.