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| Wax splendor at Madame Tussauds museum | | | Dr. Pragya Khanna | 5/3/2012 10:58:51 PM |
| Madame Tussauds museum is known world over for its wax statues of distinguished and eminent people. It is perhaps one of the very few places in the world where dozens of the finest, affluent and most significant people of past and present stand together under one roof in figurine appearance. Madame Tussauds was created by a wax sculptor Marie Tussaud. She was born in Strasbourg, France. Marie learned the skill of sculpturing from Dr. Philippe Curtius who was a physician by profession with an expertise in wax modeling. Tussaud completed her first wax figure in 1777; it was a statue of Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire. Other legendary people whom she sculpted at that time include Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. In 1842, she also made a statue of her own self which is now displayed at the entrance of her museum, the Madame Tussauds at London. It was during the French Revolution that she made the wax death masks of prominent victims. For this she hunted through the carcasses to find the decapitated heads of the individuals which the death masks were to illustrate, today this forms the main attraction of her museum, known as the Chamber of Horrors. After Dr. Curtius died in 1794, he left his anthology of waxworks to Marie. In 1802, Marie went to London and as a result of the Franco-English war she was unable to return to France so she journeyed throughout Great Britain and Ireland exhibiting her collection. She established her first permanent exhibition on Baker Street in London in 1835.
Madame Tussauds wax museum has now developed to become a main tourist attraction in London, including the London Planetarium in its west wing. It has expanded with branches in Amsterdam, Las Vegas, New York City, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Washington DC, with other added locations planned to open in Berlin in July 2008 and Hollywood in 2009. Today the wax statues at the museum include the historical and imperial figures, film stars, sports stars and famous murderers. Being called as "Madame Tussauds" museums (no apostrophe), they are possessed by a company called Merlin Entertainments.
The museum is an abode to a number wax figures of eminent personalities from all spheres of life. It includes Indian personalities like Mahatama Gandhi, the former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gan dhi and Indian actors like Amitabh Bach chan,Aish warya Rai, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and others. Due to the growing number of people visiting the museum to see waxworks of Indians, the director of the museum, Mr. James Brad bury has reportedly decided to open branches in India as well in the coming years. The prospect of the statues in the museum is so exhilarating that it would be interesting to note that it takes from six months to a year to complete a statue. Each figure roughly costs around $150,000 - $250,000. The statues are finished at Madame Tuss auds museum at London and then are shipped to different branches of the museum. The celebrities who find an opportunity to get them wax portrayed are subject to a lot of study and inspection. Hundreds of body measurements and about 150 - 200 photographs complete the preliminary groundwork. After this the actual sculpting process takes a total of about 350 hours. The statue is first built with clay on a metal frame. The finished clay body is then molded and cast into fiberglass. Later, a plaster piece cast of 12 sections is made from the clay head and a unique blend of beeswax and Japan wax is heated to 75 degrees and is poured into the head mold. Once the wax cools inside the mold and the plaster sections are removed, a hollow wax head is exposed.
For the hair, the samples are actually taken from the celebrity and are carefully matched to real human hair. Each strand of hair is inserted individually into the wax head with the hands; afterwards, the hair is washed, cut and styled. The eyes of a wax figure also require a lot of toiling and precision. Each iris is hand painted and veining is added to the whites of the eyes with fine silk threads. Everything is accurate exactly down to the teeth. A cast of the celebrity's teeth is taken and each tooth is replicated or imitated using dental acrylic and is accurately color matched. This beautiful endowment and legacy of art makes the museum stand apart from any other work in its exquisite craftsmanship. It would not be wrong to mention here that whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Confidence has genius, power, and magic in it. |
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