Abstract
Already in Ancient Egypt the use of wax in artistic manifestations was not limited to its usefulness in lost wax casting processes; good proof of this are the encaustic paintings from the Ptolemaic Period and the religious figures modeled on this material. During the Middle Ages stamps were made for documents but it was the Italian Renaissance when wax began to be used to create polychrome relief portraits and miniatures as sketches of works destined to be made on a larger scale.