Slashed Beauties

June 2, 2016 9:40 AM

The anatomical Venus re-examined. “One of the things that makes the Venus so hard for us to understand is that we’ve now divided up all those things in ways that wasn’t divided in the time that it was made... We have this division between art and science, and between religion and medicine, that didn’t exist at that time.” (Photos of nude wax anatomical models that may be NSFW or disturbing to some.)
posted by merriment (9 comments total)

This is fascinating. Thinking about ordering Ebenstein's book. From what I've read, it should be very good. Two quite useful articles on the same topic:

Anatomical models and wax Venuses: art masterpieces or scientific craft works?

The evolution of anatomical illustration and wax modelling in Italy from the 16th to early 19th centuries.
posted by sapagan at 11:16 AM on June 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

La Specola, a 400 year old museum in Florence has a room full of these. It's one of my favorite museums I've ever seen. It really is striking that the sculptors went out of their way to give expression to these medical learning props.
posted by macrael at 11:24 AM on June 2, 2016

I did not know these existed. Pretty cool.
posted by Atreides at 11:59 AM on June 2, 2016

Thanks for fleshing this out with more links, sapagan! I also had no idea these existed, but find them extraordinarily evocative. Since being introduced to the beautiful anatomical drawings of Vesalius in college, I've been casually interested in early medical illustration and the way it straddles the line between art and science, and these anatomical sculptures seem to be in the same genre.
posted by merriment at 1:25 PM on June 2, 2016

When I was about 8 years old, I had saved enough money to buy something I really wanted down at the local drug store. I don't know if they still make them but there was something called "The Visible Man" and "The Visible Woman". It was kind of like a model kit, but you needed no glue; everything was in place but you could take it apart and build it back up again. The outside "skin" was clear plastic and the interior of the body was correctly colored plastic organs and bones. It was pretty cool and I, being a budding science nerd, wanted it. The drug store had "The Visible Woman" but not the man, though either was fine with me. I brought the box up to the middle-aged woman at the cash register. She looked at the box and then at me and said, "I can't sell you this. You're too young."

This is a nice post. Thanks!
posted by Michael Tellurian at 4:35 PM on June 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

From what I've seen in the operating room, these are VERY realistic. So if you've ever been curious about what that sort of thing looks like, this is what it looks like.
posted by Modest House at 5:53 PM on June 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

I hated gross anatomy lab. I learned nothing from dissecting a corpse in med school. The people who donate their bodies for medical education are typically elderly, or riddled with disease, or have had heroic surgeries to save their lives or were in some way very far removed the ideal human specimen. Not good examples for understanding conceptually how the human body works. I'll never forget "cut open the head" day when the table next to ours discovered their cadaver had died of an intracerebral hemorrhage and his brain oozed out and into a puddle on the floor. My lady was probably about 80 and grossly overweight and all I remember is spending hours cutting through layers and layers of fat to discover organs that had been removed or were cancerous and unrecognizable. To salvage a passing grade I used highly stylized pictures to learn the relationship and function of structures and would go back to the lab and see nothing that was recognizable from the book.

I think the study of models that are both graphically accurate and beautifully ideal would have been a far better starting point for a first year medical student. These wax figures are what I am seeing in my mind's eye when I am palpating an abdomen or checking the cranial nerves.

I use my atlas of anatomy on occasion and it still reeks. To this day I get nauseous and panicky when I smell formaldehyde or phenol.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 6:54 PM on June 2, 2016

I visited La Specola on the advice of a friend, and it is truly a must see. Even more odd/interesting to me were the many sculptures of various states of pregnancy which consisted of just the lower torso from the top of the thigh to just under the rib cage lining the entire perimeter of one room.
posted by calamari kid at 8:04 PM on June 2, 2016

Michael Tellurian: "I don't know if they still make them but there was something called "The Visible Man" and "The Visible Woman"."

They still make them. Here's one at Amazon, if you want to scratch that "Rosebud" itch.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:44 PM on June 15, 2016