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 soul in Purgatory sobs and weeps tears of blood, conveying an intense remorse that suggests he may one day, like the tiny figures in the background, ascend to heaven.