Wax Souls

Memento mori from the Victoria and Albert Museum allow the faithful to meditate on their eternal destinies

These wax images are found in the Victoria & Albert Museum, and show the potential destiny of the soul at death. They were created in the 17th century for private devotion so the Christian could meditate on the last things. One bears the Latin inscription “Mors malis vita bonis” (“Death for the evil, life for the good.”), from the Lauda Sion.

The first up is a vision of hell, as the damned soul is licked by both tongues of fire and the tongues of demons (made from shards of mica).

‘Damned Soul’, wax relief, in the style of Gaetano Giulio Zumbo, Italy, ca. 1670-1700. V&A A.66-1938

‘Saved Soul’, wax relief, in the style of Gaetano Giulio Zumbo, Italy, ca. 1670-1700. V&A A.65-1938

The details are particularly vivid for the Damned Soul:

The next set of four, possibly by Giovanni Bernardino Azzolino, show the soul at death, the blessed soul, the soul in purgatory, and the damned soul.

One final wax memento mori depicts an entire scene, called “Time and Death,” from some time before 1727. Father Time points at a clock while a beggar solicits alms and death is claiming people at various stages, from dying to rotting corpse.

The artist may have been Caterina de Julianis, a Neapolitan nun.

The Deifying Light