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The wax encaustic painting technique was described by the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder in his Natural History from the 1st Century AD. [5] The oldest surviving encaustic panel paintings are the Romano-Egyptian Fayum mummy portraits from Egypt , around 100–300 AD, [ 6 ] but it was a very common technique in ancient Greek and Roman painting.
Afterwards it was to be laid picture side up, with the image covered by a sheet of paper coated in paste (generally of a beeswax or glue base). The artwork would then be flipped over and secured to the work surface with pins or nails. The current canvas would then be trimmed down or removed entirely so that a new, larger one may be applied. [6]
Icons are often illuminated with a candle or jar of oil with a wick. (Beeswax for candles and olive oil for oil lamps are preferred because they burn very cleanly, although other materials are sometimes used.) The illumination of religious images with lamps or candles is an ancient practice pre-dating Christianity.
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The best-known animal wax is beeswax, used in constructing the honeycombs of beehives, but other insects also secrete waxes. A major component of beeswax is myricyl palmitate which is an ester of triacontanol and palmitic acid. Its melting point is 62–65 °C (144–149 °F). Spermaceti occurs in large amounts in the head oil of the sperm whale.
Beeswax candles are purported to be superior to other wax candles, because they burn brighter and longer, do not bend, and burn cleaner. [15] It is further recommended for the making of other candles used in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. [16] Beeswax is also the candle constituent of choice in the Eastern Orthodox Church. [17] [18]
Candle moulding machine in Indonesia circa 1920. Candle making was developed independently in a number of countries around the world. [1]Candles were primarily made from tallow and beeswax in Europe from the Roman period until the modern era, when spermaceti (from sperm whales) was used in the 18th and 19th centuries, [2] and purified animal fats and paraffin wax since the 19th century. [1]
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