•m e n to • b e i n st r u c t e d, t h e y •m u st • b e s e d u c e d • b y a e st h e t i c s , b u t • h ow c a n • a n yo n e r e n d e r t h e • im ag e o f • d e at h ag r e e a b l e ? AV_00966_pre-pdf layout_001_215.indd 45 12/01/2016 12:14 [1]
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(48) preVious Elegantly posed écorchés showing the female reproductive system, by Jacques-Fabien Gautier d’Agoty. Taken from Anatomie des parties de la génération de l’homme et de la femme (1773) (left page, both; right page, right side) and Anatomie generale des visceres en situation (1772) (right page, left side). Vesalius, unlike many contemporary anatomists, conducted his own dissections of cadavers, which led him to recognize a variety of mistakes in the work of Claudius Galen (c. 129–216 Ce), on whose Hippocratic Corpus, an anthology of texts about the body from the fourth and fifth centuries bCe, much anatomical knowledge of the time relied. The errors, Vesalius discovered, stemmed from the fact that the old master performed most of his dissections on animals (especially pigs, dogs, and apes) rather than humans, due to prohibitions about human dissection in Roman law. His inaccuracies had been handed down for generations due, in part, to the way in which dissections were conducted, with the professor standing above the proceedings and reading aloud from Galen, while a labourer conducted the dirty work of dissection. Vesalius understood the power of illustration; his woodcuts, he explained, were not ‘executed merely as simple outlines, like ordinary diagrams in text books, but have been given a particular pictorial quality’. De Humani Corporis fig. 26 figs 26, 27 Dissectible, pregnant anatomical figure and removable pieces, carved to scale from linden wood (c. 1700). Fabrica was read by unprecedented numbers of people, due to new printing technology that enabled the mass production of high-quality, large-scale illustrations. In Fabrica’s wake, dozens of artistic and expressive anatomical atlases—many of them large, luxurious affairs, of interest to private collectors as much as students of anatomy—were produced. Some of the most memorable are the work of French artist and anatomist Jacques-Fabien Gautier d’Agoty (1710–85); he was among the first to create an atlas in full colour, by a mezzotint process of his own devising. His images have a dreamy, painterly quality; indeed, he sometimes even varnished his colour prints in imitation of oil paintings. They contrast with the annotated diagrammatic illustrations by Henry Carter (1831–97) that appeared in Gray’s Anatomy, which was published in England in 1858. Avoiding the inclusion of any extraneous detail, Carter’s style was designed for optimum clarity in pressurized clinical contexts and epito mizes the modern scientific method. The modellers who created the anatomical wax models at La Specola and other wax workshops depended for the veracity of their work on the anatomi cal illustrations featured in anatomical atlases. Firstly, the modeller, usually taking advice from an anatomist or natural philosopher, would select an illus tration, or illustrations, from trusted anatomical atlases by Vesalius, Albinus, AV_00966_pre-pdf layout_001_215.indd 48 12/01/2016 12:14 chapter one[1]
(49) Haller, Mascagni, or another. Real human body parts would then be procured to work from, in order to ensure that all the individual parts were as accurate as possible. An Anatomical Venus was expensive and time-consuming to produce. Over two hundred cadavers were sometimes required to craft a single dissect ible figure, owing to the speed with which bodies decayed, especially in the hot weather of the summer months. The modeller would either take a cast of the prepared specimen or copy it by hand. As Susini’s anatomical models are depicted with plump, rounded organs rather than deflated or even putrefying ones, British artist and anatomi cal ceroplastician Eleanor Crook believes that they were most often sculpted by hand from observation of a dissected cadaver, rather than directly cast from one. Once a model of inexpensive wax or clay had been approved, a plaster cast would be taken to serve as a mould, which could then be used repeatedly; many such moulds are still owned by La Specola today. fig. 27 Next, the plaster moulds would be coated with soap or oil to ease release of the wax. The most commonly used waxes were beeswax; white ‘Virgin wax’ from Smyrna or Venice; or that of the Chinese scale insects Ceroplastes ceriferus and Ericerus pela, which produce a particularly fine, hard, white wax with a high melting point, well suited to modelling skin, though prohibitively expensive. The wax would be mixed with turpentine and other oils or fats to produce the required texture, as well as a mastic, or plant resin, to fortify and increase its stability, which was important for sustaining structure and retaining vivid colours. It would then be carefully heated and coloured with finely ground pig ments, often highly precious or toxic, which had been sifted through cloth and dissolved in oil or turpentine. Thin layers of tinted wax would then be painted into, cooled and released from the mould. As most of the pieces were hollow, they were stuffed with rags or woodchips for support, although some, including Susini’s Medici Venus, have metal frames. Hair was attached with varnish; eye lashes were individually implanted. Fine blood vessels and nerves were made of silk or linen fibres dipped in wax. The parts would be assembled, while attending to any flaws or damage. Finally, the model would be glazed in order to keep its surfaces free of dust and effect a realistic shine: another anatomical master work ready for display. overleaf page 50 Early-seventeenth century, life-sized wooden dissectible anatomical Eve, shown fully intact (left) and with her breastplate removed (right) to reveal viscera and the baby in her womb. page 51 The same anatomical Eve with the top of her head lifted off to reveal the painted wooden brain beneath. AV_00966_pre-pdf layout_001_215.indd 49 13/01/2016 12:38 THE BIRTH OF THE anaTOmIcal VEnUS[1]
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These miniature dissectible female ivory anatomical manikins were created in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They were probably used by medical specialists and midwives to train their students, instruct young couples, or reassure pregnant women; the torso of each can be removed to reveal the internal organs. The following poem written by Italian obstetrician J0seph Fuardi de Fossau in 1786 accompanied one such manikin. In Life’s full bloom, when labour’s toil so near My fellow sufferers’ lot and perils I do fear, Come ye fair pupils, Lo, I cast aside my shame That Midwif’ries secrets may reveal my frame. Pierce it with keen enquiring eye, and may The child and mother’s nature then convey New manifold devices to your skilful art That pining women may not henceforth smart Through cruel untaught efforts, and not gasp With their unborn in Death’s unpityinggrasp. AV_00966_pre-pdf layout_001_215.indd 53 12/01/2016 12:1
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top Madame Tussaud’s waxworks of the heads of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette after they were guillotined, possibly cast from the original death masks. Photographed in London in the early 1960s. aboVe Late-nineteenth-century photograph of the atelier of wax modeller Emil Eduard Hammer in Munich, Germany. Hammer made models for the exhibitions of curiosities known as panopticons and for medical museums. AV_00966_pre-pdf layout_001_215.indd 59 12/01/2016 12:14 [1]
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