BEESWAX AND OTHER WAXES
WAX of any kind, as a painting medium, should not be used under any circumstances. In order to produce Matte effects, there are on sale reliable varnishes which dry perfectly flat and which contain no wax of any kind, but which are made of Copal, Damar or Mastic, and to which about ten per cent. of a material known as Palmitate of Aluminum, or Stearate of Aluminum, has been added. These two materials are known as flatting materials and do not remelt after they are dissolved in Varnish.
I recall a very excellent Dutch painting in which beeswax had been used as a Medium and which was brought over to America and placed in the house of a collector. The following Summer was one of the hottest Summers which New York had ever experienced, and on re-opening the house in the Fall, the eyes in the portrait of this picture had melted and run down over the cheeks.
One often hears the remark that the Egyptian portraits painted in the First and Second Centuries and done with wax are still as perfect as the day they were painted. I have examined some of these paintings and find that they were not done with wax at all, but done with a hard resin of a high melting point.
So every painter who wants to paint permanent pictures should stick strictly to simple vehicles and pigments and not have anything to do with wax whatever.