Making use of wax’s uncanny resemblance to flesh, Giovanni Bernardino Azzolini created a trio of sculptures that viscerally illustrate the states of the soul after death: Paradise, Purgatory, and Hell. Their vivid imagery, designed to inspire contemplation of mortality, is drawn directly from popular prints by the German artist Alexander Mair and Dutch artist Egbert van Panderen.

The figure representing a soul in Paradise wears a luxurious, jeweled tunic and smiles serenely, evoking depictions of saints. The controlled symmetry of the face provides a stark contrast for the expressions of the figures in this work’s two companion pieces, Purgatory and Hell.