Gaetano Bartolozzi

This portrait relief in wax depicts Gaetano Bartolozzi, an Italian engraver (1757- 1821). An inscription on the back records that it was 'done by J. Plum London 1782.'

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, low relief portraits in wax became popular in Britain and they were often exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Society of Artists and elsewhere. Waxes were used in a similar way to prints and medals, in order to disseminate the image of the sitter, or, like miniature paintings or silhouettes as portable mementoes.