Saturday, August 7, 2010

Wax Anatomical Model of a Female Showing Internal Organs, Francesco Calenzuoli, Florence, 1818; Wellcome Collection at the Science Museum



This anatomical wax model shows the internal organs in a female torso and head, including the lungs, liver, stomach, kidneys and intestines. Complete with the veins and arteries, the heart is entirely removable. The figure was made by Francesco Calenzuoli (1796-1821), an Italian model maker renowned for his attention to detail. Wax models were used for teaching anatomy to medical students because they made it possible to pick out and emphasise specific features of the body, making their structure and function easier to understand. This made them especially useful at a time when few bodies were available for dissection. The model was donated by the Department of Human Anatomy at the University of Oxford.

Object number: 1988-249
Yet more (recent posts here: 1, 2, 3) riches from the London Science Museum's magnificently inexhaustable Brought to Life web exhibit. You can see much, much more by clicking here. Also, please click on images to see them in their full large-scale glory.

2 comments:

BlueTerracotta said...

Their site is great, very informative and I found the "themes and topics" section especially interesting with such topics as 'birth and death' and 'beleif and medicine',(and lots more).

Macabre Doll said...

this is amazing