EXTRAORDINARY ITALIAN WAX PORTRAIT OF THE MID-1700s

The Italian wax portraits are extremely rare, and the discovery of this portrait after almost 300 years of oblivion is truly a miracle. The author, the ceroplast Piero Bezzi from Venice (died 1769) was the son of Tommaso Bezzi who lived between 1600 and 1700, an engineer and set scenographer  at the court of the Este dukes of Modena. This life-size portrait of a child is part of the famous wax factory that flourished in Bologna and Modena in the 18th century, and which produced extraordinary collections of anatomical waxes still visible in Emilian museums. Much rarer are the portraits of famous or allegorical characters like the one we present. The wax is placed in a large case with original protective glass and appears as still sealed from its origin. in one hand the child holds a geographic map which probably indicates the place of the portrait. Magnificent and very rare work still to be studied. important for the history of cerolpastic art and for the signature of its author which allows to reconstruct its fascinating history