A True Tale of Krampus Youth from Bad Goisern, Austria

To extend the holiday cheer, I am very excited to share with you this tale of growing up with the Krampus tradition, just in from Austrian Morbid Anatomy reader Julia Atzmanstorfer:

Hello from Austria, 

I recently noted that you post much about Krampus - which is a very vivid tradition in the region where I live. Here in Bad Goisern/Upper Austria we have one of the biggest Krampus events in the country; hundreds of Krampusses come there to meet and run every December.

I just asked myself if you know that this old tradition has nothing to do with Christmas itself - as a important part of Advent and takes place on the 5th of December, the evening of St. Nikolaus. Krampus is the companion of St. Nikolaus (an old, rather kindhearted, but also rigorous man who visits the children), and he has the role of punishing those, who have been bad through the year, by hitting them with his birch (in former times children were also told that the Krampus would take them with him). 

These guys are really, really scary when you are a child... Their shaggy skins, their wooden masks (which are often handed down from generation to generation and nowadays also more and more orientated in modern splatter movies) and their cow bells around the ankles... the very sound of them is really threatening when they are coming nearer! 

Behind the Krampus mask there is always a young man, never a girl or a woman - and the whole custom of course also has a certain archaic sexual connotation, because the Krampusses hidden behind their masks also catch girls to hit them. When I was around 16, 17, it was always very exciting to participate in the Krampuslauf as a spectator - when you are a teenager, you hope that one of them gets you... 

Anyway. Perhaps you know all this. Just in case you did not yet, I thought you might find it interesting. 

Merry Christmas!
Julia

Thanks so much, Julia, for sending this along!

Wonderful Italian Vanitas Bust from the Late 17th Century

An Italian vanitas bust from the late 17th century, from the exhibition “Marble Sculpture From 350 B.C. to Last Week” at Sperone Westwater as seen in a recent issue of The New York Times.

More about this exhibition, from the press release:

Marble Sculpture from 350 B.C. to last week Curated by Gian Enzo Sperone 22 December 2011New York, NY 

Sperone Westwater is pleased to present an exhibition of white marble sculptures dating from 350 B.C. to the present day. This survey includes Greek and Roman antiquities, Neoclassical sculptures, and works by modern and contemporary European and American artists. 

Marble is one of the oldest and most fundamental materials of sculpture with wide-ranging use in the fine arts, decorative arts, and architecture. Among the works from Greek and Roman antiquity in Marble Sculpture from 350 B.C. to Last Week is an Ionian Greek grave relief from the second half of the fourth century B.C. that depicts three figures presenting a narrative on a farewell to the deceased. A Vestal statue from the second century A.D. represents the virgin goddess of hearth, home, and family in Roman religion. Notable Roman sculptures from the first and second century A.D. are also presented including a vase and a bust of young man. Significant sculptures from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries include Icarus, the mythological figure of a man with wings, by Tommaso Bonazza (Venice 1696 – Padua 1775), as well as Hercules by Giacomo Cassetti Marinali (Venice 1682 – Vicenza 1757), carved out of pietra di Vicenza, to name a couple.The modern and contemporary works in Marble Sculpture provide a different context for the ancient material. Pioneer of the Dada movement, Jean Arp created Mediterranean Sculpture I (Orphic Dream), 1941, a biomorphic sculpture that has rounded and angular edges, encompassing the artist’s desire to conflate nature’s different forms. Richard Long’s Heaven (Portrait of Carl Andre), 2011, consists of six rows of large marble blocks. Infinite, 2011, by Fabio Viale, depicts two interlocked tires carved out of marble. Not Vital’s 1/2 Man 1/2 Animal, 1996, is an eleven-foot tall anthropomorphic sculpture that resembles a mythical creature. An installation of five slabs, Ai Weiwei’s Marble Doors, 2007, depicts a barricade of white and grey doors. Bertozzi & Casoni’s Gorilbattista, 2011, is a vanitas sculpture of a gorilla head on a plate. Tom Sachs’s Brute, 2009/2010, transforms an ordinary lightweight object to the extraordinary through the medium of marble. In Purity, 2008-2011, Barry X Ball reinvigorates the age-old tradition of figurative marble sculpture through the use of unconventional stones and methods.

Click on image to see larger, finer version.

"Hairy Secrets: Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry:" Lectures and Hair Art Workshop, January 18-31, Observatory

We at Morbid Anatomy are delighted to announce a new series at Observatory developed in conjunction with master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann. Entitled Hairy Secrets: Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry, this series will explore, in a three-part  lecture series and one workshop, the history of the preservation of human remains for reasons sacred and profane, culminating in the flowering of Victorian hair art mourning jewelry, or jewelry which incorporates the hair of the beloved dead.

Full details on all events follow; hope to see you and one or more! And please note: If you are interested in attending the workshop, please RSVP to morbidanatomy@gmail.com. This class is very nearly sold out, but we are hoping to add an additional class in February if interest justifies.
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"Speaking Reliquaries" and Christian Death Rituals
 Date: Thursday, January 17
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
Part 1 of Hairy Secrets Lecture Series

In tonight's illustrated lecture--the introductory lecture of a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann will focus on what are termed "speaking" reliquaries: the often elaborate containers which house the preserved body parts--or relics--of saints and martyrs with shapes which reflect that of the body-part contained within.

Bachmann will examine these fascinating objects from an art historical perspective, and discuss their relationship to concepts of human body parts as icons of the immortal. They will be put into the larger context of Christian death rituals, in particular the veneration of saints body parts as sacred and magical relics. Also discussed will be the extremely odd proclivities of a variety of renaissance saints, such as Catherine of Sienna who drank pus from open sores. This will serve as the genesis in our further discussions of human hair, teeth, and nails as icons of the immortal.
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The History of the Memento Mori and Death’s Head Iconography
Date: Thursday, January 24
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
Part 2 of Hairy Secrets Lecture Series

In tonight's illustrated lecture--the second in a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann will explore the development of the memento mori, objects whose very raison d'être is to remind the beholder that they, too, will die. Bachman will trace the symbolism and iconography of the memento mori and death's head imagery in both Medieval and Renaissance art, focusing on jewelry. She will also discuss the development of the "portable relic" -- a wearable form of body part reliquary, will be the focus of this lecture. The importance of hair in contemporaneous art of the period will be addressed, as well as the development of bereavement jewelry with hair.
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The Victorian Love Affair with Death and the Art of Mourning Hair Jewelry
Date: Thursday, January 31
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
Part 3 of Hairy Secrets Lecture Series

The Victorians had a love affair with death which they expressed in a variety of ways, both intensely sentimental and macabre. Tonight's lecture--the last in a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--will take as its focus the apex of the phenomenon of hair jewelry fashion in the Victorian Era as an expression of this passion. Nineteenth century mourning rituals will be discussed, with a particular focus on Victorian hairwork jewelry, both palette worked and table worked. Also discussed will be the historical roots of the Victorian fascination with death, such as high mortality rates for both adults and children, the rise of the park cemetery, and the death of Queen Victoria's beloved Prince Albert and her subsequent fashion-influencing 40-year mourning period. Historical samples of hair art and jewelry from the lecturer's personal collection will also be shown.

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Class: The Victorian Art of Hair Jewelry with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
Date: Sunday, January 13
Time: 12 - 4 PM
Admission: $75
***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy@gmail.com to be added to class list; 15 person limit
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

Hair jewelry was an enormously popular form of commemorative art that began in the late 17th century and reached its zenith during the Victorian Era. Hair, either of someone living or deceased, was encased in metal lockers or woven to enshrine the human relic of a loved one. This class will explore a modern take on the genre.

The technique of "palette working" or arranging hair in artful swoops and curls will be explored and a variety of ribbons, beads, wire and imagery of mourning iconography will be supplied for potential inclusion. A living or deceased person or pet may be commemorated in this manner.

Students are requested to bring with them to class their own hair, fur, or feathers; all other necessary materials will be supplied. Hair can be self-cut, sourced from barber shops or hair salons (who are usually happy to provide you with swept up hair), from beauty supply shops (hair is sold as extensions), or from wig suppliers. Students will leave class with their own piece of hair jewelry and the knowledge to create future projects.

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled "Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry". In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

More on all events can be found here. To see all Morbid Anatomy events, click here.

Image: Mourning brooches containing the hair of a deceased relative. Wellcome Images 

Morbid Anatomy Library Open Hours, This Sunday, January 6, 1:30-6:00 PM

This Sunday the Morbid Anatomy Library (seen above) will be hosting no-appointment-necessary open hours from 1:30- to 6:00. So come on by for a perusal of the stacks and a gander at our human skeleton, tatty taxidermy and wax embryological models.

For more about the Morbid Anatomy Library and for directions and other such information, click here.

Photo of The Library by Joanna Ebenstein.

Creating Stereoscopic 3-D Images of Small Specimens Using a Desktop Scanner: Workshop with Stereoscopic 3-D Artist Gerald Marks, This Saturday, January 5

This Saturday! Students are invited to use objects from the Morbid Anatomy Library for scanning. If interested in attending this class, please email morbidanatomy[at]gmail.com.

Creating Stereoscopic 3-D Images of Small Specimens Using a Desktop Scanner:
Workshop with Stereoscopic 3-D Artist Gerald Marks
Date: Saturday, January 5, 2013
Time: 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM with a short lunch break
Fee: $60
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
*** Class size is limited to 16; please RSVP to morbidanatomy[at]gmail.com

In this workshop class you will learn to produce high-quality stereoscopic images of small objects, using a conventional desktop scanner. Everyone in the class can expect to leave with at least one 3-D picture, ready to post on a the web, email, or include in digital slide show, and the knowledge of how to do the process. With this technique, quite a bit of magnification is possible, almost rivaling microscope work.

After scanning, we will work with the images in Adobe Photoshop, using the same basic approach that the instructor has developed for Stereoscopic 3-D images in general, so you will be learning a professional technique for working with 3-D image pairs.
We will primarily view and work with our 3-D images using traditional Anaglyph Red/Blue 3-D glasses but we can output our scan work to any 3-D viewing system, including all types of 3-D projection and 3-D Television. 3-D glasses will be provided.
We will be scanning the objects on a conventional desktop scanners, such as the Epson Perfection series, and working with the scans on a laptop, using Adobe Photoshop (any version). All of the computer work on the instructor's laptop will be projected large, and in 3-D, so that it will be easy to follow.

Bring to Class
The primary thing to bring to class is the object you wish to scan. Almost anything in your collection from about .25" to about 6" wide should work, as long as it holds together. (Slime, for example, doesn't hold together) Natural or man-made objects, such as coins or medals work great. Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral are all OK, as long as it will hold still for at least two exposures. Bring additional objects as some things scan better than others and there may be time to scan more.

Bring a flash drive, or a blank CD, to put your scans on and take home

You may bring your own laptop, with Photoshop installed, but it is not required. Bring your own scanner, too, if you like (When transporting a scanner, remember to "lock" the scanner head!)

Gerald Marks is an artist working along the border of art and science, specializing in stereoscopic 3-D since 1973. He may be best known for the 3-D videos he directed for The Rolling Stones during their Steel Wheels tour. He has taught at The Cooper Union, The New School for Social Research, and the School of Visual Arts, where he currently teaches Stereoscopic 3-D within the MFA program in Computer Art. He was artist in residence at San Francisco's Exploratorium and a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Media Lab, where he worked with computer-generated holography. His Professor Pulfrich's Universe installations are popular features in museums all over the world, including the Exploratorium, The N. Y. Hall of Science, and Sony ExploraScience in Beijing & Tokyo. He has done 3-D consulting, lecturing & design for scientific purposes for The American Museum of Natural History, the National Institutes of Health, and Discover Magazine. He has created a large variety of 3-D artwork for advertising, display, and pharmaceutical use, as well as broadcast organizations Fox and MTV. He has designed award winning projections and sets at the N.Y. Public Theater, SOHO Rep, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center and the Nashville Ballet, where he created stereoscopically projected sets. He created the 3-D mural in the 28th Street station of the #6 train in New York City’s subway. He did 3-D imaging of dance around the New York shoreline as part of an iLAB grant from the iLAND Foundation for using the arts to raise environmental consciousness.

More here.

Happy New Years Everybody!

Image found here.

Morbid Anatomy Library Open Hours, This Sunday, December 30th, 1:30-6:00 PM

This Sunday, the newly post-Hurricane Sandy re-built Morbid Anatomy Library (seen above) will hosting no-appointment-necessary open hours from 1:30- to 6:00. So come on by for a perusal of the stacks and a gander at our human skeleton, tatty taxidermy and wax embryological models.

For more about the Morbid Anatomy Library and for directions and other such information, click here.

Photo of The Library by Joanna Ebenstein.

A Very Merry Christmas Indeed: 18th Century Italian Pathological Nativity Scene Crèches!

Towards my sincere wish that each of you has a very merry Christmas today, please accept this virtual gift: two intriguing and lovely pathologically-detailed 18th century Italian nativity scene crèche figures from the collection of the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, Yale University.

An excerpt from the article on Atlas Obscura:

Holiday Creche Figures With Goiters

...The lovely ladies seen above were made to be part of a classic nativity scene, welcoming the infant Christ into the world. They are shown suffering from what was once a relatively common malady: goiters. These enlarged thyroids caused painful swellings in the throat usually due to iodine deficiency in the diet, and were particularly prevalent in Alpine regions of Europe where the soil was naturally low in iodine.

These two dolls are known as Crèche (or Presepio) figures, and are found in Nativity scenes. The country women, garbed in handmade peasant dress, have unusual features that led to their inclusion in the Yale’s Medical Historical Library. Both have prominent goiters on their necks. Goiters are swelling of the thyroid gland.

Creche figures often depicted “realistic” features, and in the 18th century, peasant and country folk were thought to be a great addition, often in the background of the scene. Figures with goiters attending the birth of Baby Jesus is an entire level of realism never expected in a Nativity scene...

We often think of the beauty associated with the Nativity, but in reality, people in earlier centuries had a variety of ailments that manifested on the outside, and weren’t removed. Skin diseases, tumors, and goiters, which we don’t often see in people with the help of modern medicine, were not unusual.

--Melissa Grafe is the John R. Bumstead Librarian for Medical History at Yale University.  

You can read the whole article--from which this is excerpted--on Atlas Obscura by clicking here. And thanks, Dylan Thuras, for sending this along!

And Merry Christmas, y'all!

Images of creche figures courtesy of the Yale University, used with permission.

“Der Struwwelpeter” (“Shockheaded Peter”), German Film, 1955, Subtitles by Art of Bleeding

More holiday cheer, this time from our friends over at The Art of Bleeding, who have just posted excerpts from the rarely seen 1955 German film “Der Struwwelpeter” (“Shockheaded Peter”) embellished with their own, as they put it, "somewhat creative subtitles." The film is based on Heinrich Hoffmann's infamous, circa 1845 Gorey- and Oompa Loompa-inspiring cautionary children's book in which ill-behaved kinder receive graphic comeuppances for a variety of misbehaviors.

You can view one of my favorites above, and check out the entire collection by clicking here.

Gruß vom Krampus and Happy Holidays Everyone!

Gruß vom Krampus and Happy Holidays, everyone!

The images you see above are all vintage Krampus postcards except for the bottom image, a photo of the special (and delicious!) Krampus cake provided by the fellas of Ghoul a Go Go for Saturday night's Morbid Anatomy and Ghoul a Go Go Krampus Party; You can see a full selection of photos from this epic evening by clicking here.

Postcards pictured above found here, here, here, here, here and here.

Happy Saint Victoria Day!

Happy Saint Victoria Day, Morbid Anatomy Readers!

More about this lovely saint--whose remains were discussed at length in yesterday's post--from Wikipedia:

Saints Victoria, Anatolia, and Audax (Italian: Sante Vittoria, Anatolia, e Audace) are venerated as martyrs and saints by the Catholic Church...

Their legend... recounts that, in the time of the Emperor Decius, Anatolia and Victoria were sisters whose marriage was arranged to two noble, non-Christian Roman men. They resisted matrimony and their prospective grooms denounced them as Christians. They received permission to imprison the women on their estates and convince them to renounce their faith.

Anatolia's suitor, Titus Aurelius, gave up, and handed her back to the authorities. Victoria’s suitor, Eugenius, was more persistent, but also ended up returning her to the authorities.

Victoria’s legend states that she was stabbed through the heart in 250 AD at Trebula Mutuesca (today Monteleone Sabino). An elaboration on her legend states that her murderer was immediately struck with leprosy, and died six days later....

Due to the translation of their relics, their cult spread across Italy. The body of Saint Victoria was transferred in 827 by Abbot Peter of Farfa to Mount Matenano from the Piceno because of the Moorish invasions. The town of Santa Vittoria in Matenano is named after her. Ratfredus, subsequent Abbot of Farfa, brought the body to Farfa on 20 June 931... Saint Victoria's preserved remains are currently on display at the Santa Maria della Vittoria church in Rome.

Image found here.

"The Macabre and Little Known Sight of Saint Victoria of Rome" : A Mystery Revealed, Thanks to the BBC

Regular readers might remember the enigmatic and gorgeous Saint Victoria (or Saint Vittoria; seen above), a life-sized saint I stumbled upon in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria directly across from Bernini's tourist-drawing Ecstasy of Saint Theresa on a recent trip to Rome. This rose-crowned and slashed-neck lady had caused me no little consternation; Was she waxwork? Effigy? Reliquary? Or some combination of the above? Sadly, churches do not have informational panels explaining such things, and I was left only to wonder as to her history and makeup.

Then, very recently, a few comments popped up on my blog from folks who had seen this mysterious figure discussed at length on the "Divine Gamble" episode of the new BBC TV series "Rome--A History of the Eternal City." I finally was able to locate a copy on You Tube and at about 12:47 minutes in, here is what I learned:

This figure, one of the cities least known but most macabre sights, appears to be a statue. But closer inspection reveals something far more spine chilling. When first you look at this, you think it must be a waxwork. But when you look a little closer, into the slightly open mouth you see, through the open lips of a skeleton. And if you look at the hands on the outside, they appear to be wax. But look inside. You can see not just the skeletal bones of the real hand of the human body but actually the dry skin there too. This is the body of Saint Victoria.

What the host does not mention explicitly is that it is, indeed, the body of the saint herself, but very much "touched up" with wax, human hair, and clothing. You can watch this segment--or the entire episode--by clicking here. You can read the former blog post by clicking here. Thanks so much to posters Cheryl, Josh and Allan for alerting me to this!

"Santa Muerte, Posada’s Mexico and the End of Times" Guest Post by Salvador Olguín, Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence

 

For this non-end-of-days end-of-days, a word on Death in Mayan and Mexican culture from new Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence Salvador Olguín:

I’ve been following the Morbid Anatomy blog for quite some time. This is my second guest post in the blog (the first can be found here); this time I am officially writing as Morbid Anatomy’s new Scholar in Residence. I told Joanna Ebenstein I wanted to write a few lines to commemorate such major occasion as the end of the 13th baktun of the Mayan calendar –that is, the 13th cycle of 144,000 days since the world began, otherwise known as The End of Times. Posting this text after the announcement of the Morbid Anatomy Library’s recent acquisition of a lot of Santa Muerte artifacts, also celebrated in this article by David Metcalf, is a happy coincidence. Finally, being able to use this post to introduce Posada’s Mexico, a book about José Guadalupe Posada recently acquired by the MA library, is a real treat.

José Guadalupe Posada was a Mexican engraver and illustrator who started working in the late 1800s as a cartoonist. He produced a vast number of etchings, most of which first appeared in the news papers and cheap periodicals published in Mexico City during the last decade of the 19th and the early 1900s. Posada’s was a time of social turmoil. The publications where he worked criticized the autocratic government of Porfirio Díaz for favoring Mexico’s Europeanized higher classes over the workers and the dispossessed. In this milieu, Posada used his art to satirize the rich and powerful, but also to illustrate current events and the news: murders, cases of cannibalism, floods, earthquakes and the End of the World, which people in Mexico believed was imminent 100 years ago.

Posada created a series of iconic characters like Don Chepito Marihuano (Mr. Chepito The Pothead), a gentleman who entertained the habit of smoking large amounts of weed. You can see him holding a skull, Hamlet-style, in the bottom illustration above. One of his most iconic illustrations was La Calavera Garbancera, later baptized as La Catrina by Diego Rivera. She came to represent Death personified for all Mexicans. Posada conceived her as a working class woman of mixed Native American and European blood, wearing a pretentious French hat. Later Rivera painted her in one of his murals (4th image down), but instead of using her as a vehicle of social commentary he dressed her up in a full fancy gown, making her a proud symbol of the unification of Mexico’s dual roots: Spanish and Native American. The fact that this symbol is embodied as a skeleton shows the importance of the personification of Death in Mexican iconography, and makes La Catrina a direct precursor of Santa Muerte.

Most Mesoamerican cultures had a cyclical notion of time. There were times of destruction and times of renewal. There had been other Worlds, and other versions of Humanity in their mythical pass, and there would be new worlds and a new humanity in the future. A Mayan wouldn’t be surprised that the world didn’t come to an end: today marks the beginning of the 14th baktun. Death remains the only certain thing in life; believing She’s a person, a being that watches over us, is certainly a soothing idea. Knowing She likes to smoke, drink, and feast like Santa Muerte does is simply the best. Take a look at these images from Posada’s Mexico, now available for researchers at the Morbid Anatomy Library.

You can find out more about Santa Muerte in these recent posts (1, 2); you can find out more about our upcoming Santa Muerte lecture and party by clicking here, and more about The Morbid Anatomy Library by clicking here. You can find out more about Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence Salvador Olguín by clicking here. All images are scans from Posada’s Mexico, a book about José Guadalupe Posada recently acquired by the Morbid Anatomy library.

TONIGHT: Morbid Anatomy and Ghoul A Go-Go Holiday Krampus Party with "DEVILS" Show Premiere!

Tonight--Saturday December 22--please join Morbid Anatomy, Ghoul a Go Go and the cloven hooved Krampus himself for a booze-addled celebration of the darker side of Christmas!

You can read the Brooklyn Paper's writeup here; Full details follow; Hope very much to see you there!

Morbid Anatomy and Ghoul A Go-Go Holiday Krampus Party with "DEVILS" Show Premiere!
Date: Saturday, December 22
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $13
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

* Premiere of Ghoul A Go-Go's "DEVILS" show with Vlad and Creighton appearing LIVE!!
* A screening of the bizarro Mexican holiday classic feature film Santa Claus (1959)! The devil Pitch is on the loose! Can Christmas be saved?
* "Beelzebab "Siren of Sodom" performs live burlesque!
* Mistress Dominae Drakonis beats the naughty!
* Mulled Wine! Krampus cake! Piñata! More fun than you can beat with a stick!

Ghoul A Go-Go and Morbid Anatomy are throwing a Krampus holiday party to celebrate the world premiere of Ghoul A Go-Go's new "DEVILS" show! The ghost of Sammy Davis Jr. will not be there, but Vlad and Creighton will pour on more entertainment than a naughty child can handle. Beelzebabe, Siren of Sodom, will perform her scorching "Bad Girls Go To Hell" burlesque--an act one archbishop cited as the cause of his fall from grace! To add to the Krampus festivities, Mistress Dominae Drakonis, in all her satanic majesty, will deal out beatings to the naughty. There will be mulled wine to spice things up even further, as well as a Krampus cake. For your visual entertainment, there will be a screening of the 1959 Mexican classic film, Santa Claus, featuring the the devil Pitch. A piñata will be beaten. You will also have the privilege of being the first to see the brand new Ghoul A Go-Go episode on the big screen in all its devilish glory! To grind things to halt, there will be an Observatory styled lecture on Christmas. And then back to the party! It'll be more fun than a sack full of children so wear your best Krampus costume!

More here.

"Viva la Muerte: The Mushrooming Cult of Saint Death"--A New Event Just in Time for The End of the World

It seems only appropriate to announce Morbid Anatomy's newest event "Viva la Muerte: The Mushrooming Cult of Saint Death" on this day, December 21, 2012, which many believe to be the end of the world as predicted by the long-cycle Mayan calendar.

This epic event--which will take place on Sunday February 3rd--will investigate via lecture, moderated Q and A, mini exhibit of newly acquired Santa Muerte materials and general merrymaking the fascinating and growing phenomenon of "Santa Muerte," a new Mexican-based religion born of the fertile mix of indigenous Mayan and Aztec beliefs with that of Spanish Catholicism.

Full information follows; very much hope to see you there!

Oh, and happy end of the world, everybody!!

"Viva la Muerte: The Mushrooming Cult of Saint Death" : Lecture, Book Signing and Party
Illustrated lecture by Professor R. Andrew Chesnut, author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint; Q and A moderated by The Revealer's David Metcalfe; Music and cocktails by Friese Undine; Santa Muerte and Jesus Malverde wedding cake and Funeral floral arrangements compliments of Tonya Hurley and Tracy Hurley Martin; Mini-exhibit of newly-donated Santa Muerte materials from the Morbid Anatomy Library
Date: Sunday, February 3
Time: 7:00 (Doors at 6:00)
Admission: $12
Produced by Morbid Anatomy and Borderline Projects
*** Copies of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint will be available for sale and signing

On Sunday, February 3rd, please join us to celebrate the Morbid Anatomy Library's new acquisition of a large and spectacular lot of materials relating to Santa Muerte, a Mexican-based “cult” or possibly even a “new religion” which takes as its central figure a sanctified Lady Death. Literally translating to “Holy Death” or “Saint Death,” the worship of Santa Muerte--like Day of the Dead--is a popular form of religious expression rooted in a rich syncretism of the beliefs of the native Latin Americans and the colonizing Spanish Catholics.

Tonight's celebration will begin with a highly-illustrated lecture on the roots, history and worship of Santa Muerte by Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut, Chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint. Following, attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions during a Q and A which with the lecturer and death in Mexico scholar Salvador Olguín moderated by David Metcalfe of The Revealer.

Come early (doors open at 6) and stay late to enjoy thematic music and special artisanal cocktails utilizing the favorite spirits of "The Boney Lady" herself, compliments of Friese Undine. You can also admire--and indulge in!--a special Santa Muerte and Jesus Malverde Wedding Cake compliments of our generous Santa Muerte artifact donors Tonya Hurley and Tracy Hurley Martin, and take in a temporary mini-exhibit of the amazing donations themselves. There will also be gorgeous funeral floral arrangements by Emily Thompson Flowers, and Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut will be happy to sign copies of his new book Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint which will be available for sale.

More here. For more on Santa Muerte and the Morbid Anatomy Library's new lot of artifacts, click here.

Morbid Anatomy Library Acquisition Number 1,352: New Lot of Santa Muerte Related Materials from Mexico

The Morbid Anatomy Library is delighted to announce the acquisition of a new lot of materials related to Santa Muerte, which is, depending on whom you ask, a Mexican-based "cult" or "new religion" which worships death as a female saint.

"Santa Muerte," which literally translates to "Holy Death" or "Saint Death," is popular in Mexico and the United States with disenfranchised populations for whom conventional Catholicism has not provided a better or safer life. It is thought to have its roots in the rich syncretism of the beliefs of the native Latin Americans and the colonizing Spanish Catholics.

The artifacts donated to the library, many of which you see above, include sacred books and pamphlets, devotional statues, magical soaps and oils, charms, incense, and even "La Biblia de la Santa Muerte." They were generously donated by Friends of Morbid Anatomy Tonya Hurley and Tracy Hurley Martin as found on their travels in Mexico. Stay tuned for a series of future guest posts documenting their travels.

These artifacts are now on display and available to researchers. The library will host no-appointment-necessary open hours tomorrow, Sunday December 16th, from 1-4:30. Address and directions here. For more on the fascinating Santa Muerte--and more images!-see this recent post.

Morbid Anatomy Library Open Hours, This Sunday, December 16th, 1-4:30

This Sunday, the newly post-Hurricane Sandy re-opened and re-built Morbid Anatomy Library (seen above) will hosting no-appointment-necessary open hours from 1- to 4:30. So come on by for a perusal of the stacks and a gander at our human skeleton, lots or art, taxidermy and wax embryological models.

For more about the Morbid Anatomy Library and for directions and other such information, click here.

Photo of The Library by Joanna Ebenstein.

Happy Saint Lucy/Santa Lucia Day!

From Wikipedia:

Saint Lucia's Day (sometimes Lucy for short) is the Church feast day dedicated to Saint Lucy and is observed on the 13th of December. Its modern day celebration is generally associated with Sweden and Norway but is also observed in Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Finland, Hungary, Malta, Bosnia, Bavaria, Croatia, Slovakia, Spain and St. Lucia, West Indies. In the United States it is celebrated with cookies on the mantel in states for a large number of people of Scandinavian ancestry, often centered around church events.

In traditional celebrations, Saint Lucy comes as a young woman with lights and sweets. It is one of the few saint days observed in Scandinavia. In some forms, a procession is headed by one girl wearing a crown of candles (or lights), while others in the procession hold only a single candle each.

Thanks, GF Newland, for alerting me to this!

Image: St.Lucy - Patroness Saint Of Blind People, Eyes And Throat Ailments, from Arthur Love Saints on Flickr. Link here.

The Morbid Anatomy Holiday Fair Recap

If you were unlucky enough to miss last weekend's wonderful Morbid Anatomy Holiday Fair, you can read a nice article about it in The New York Observer or check out photo essays detailing its wonders on the websites of Flavorpill or The Village Voice.

Top image drawn from Flavorpill  all others from The Village Voice;. Top image features Amber Joliffe; second to top Mark Splatter.

Morbid Anatomy Birthday Party with Sicilian Sex Ghosts! Medieval Automata! Krumpus-themed Holiday Party with Ghoul-A-Go-Go! 3D Galore! Dark New York! Rare Books from AMNH! Morbid Anatomy Presents at Observatory This Month and Beyond...

Hope to see you all tonight (!!!) at the Morbid Anatomy Birthday Party featuring a highly illustrated lecture on "Sicilian Sex Ghosts" by Empire of Death's Paul Koudounaris, music and artisinal cocktails by Friese Undine, and thematic baked goods by Rachel Rideout!

If you can't make it tonight, perhaps you can join us for the Morbid Anatomy and Ghoul-a-Go-Go Krumpus-themed holiday party? Or you might fancy participating in the holiday edition of our popular anthropomorphic insect shadowbox class! Or checking out a slideshow of amazing art from the rare book collections at the AMNH? Or learning about dark New York? If not, perhaps you'd like to learn about medieval automata! Or see a 3D slideshow!

These and many other delights await you as part of Morbid Anatomy Presents this month and beyond at Observatory; full details follow. Hope to see you there!
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Sicilian Sex Ghosts AND Morbid Anatomy Birthday Party
An illustrated lecture and Slideshow by Empire of Death author Dr. Paul Koudounaris with Music and Cocktails by Friese Undine and thematic baked goods by Rachel Ridout
Date: Tuesday December 11
Time: 8:00
Admission: $12
Produced by Morbid Anatomy

Do you like sex? Do you like Death? Do you like Sicilians? Do you like Morbid Anatomy, alcohol, birthday parties, thematic cakes and music? If you answered yes to any of these questions, please join author/photographer of Empire of Death Dr. Paul Koudounaris, as he presents an in-depth lecture with full slideshow on the Sex Ghosts of the Palermo Catacombs for an evening's spectacular which will also serve as the birthday party for Morbid Anatomy's Joanna Ebenstein.

Over 400 years ago, the monks of Palermo's Capuchin monastery began mummifying their own brothers and prominent local citizens, and displaying their bodies in subterranean galleries. The result was one of the world's most haunted sites. But many of these ghosts were not content to simply roam the passageways rattling chains--death had apparently not quelled their sexual appetites, and with libidos in overdrive they took to the streets of the city to fulfill their lecherous needs. Dr. Koudounaris will explore this fascinating folklore in a uniquely bizarre lecture, illustrated with his own photographs of the mummies still preserved in Palermo.

Come for the lecture, and linger for the party, which will feature Music and Cocktails by Friese Undine and morbid baked goods by the lovely Rachel Ridout.

Dr. Paul Koudounaris holds a PhD in Art History (UCLA) and has taught classes at numerous universities and published in magazines throughout the world. He is the author of The Empire of Death, the first illustrated history of charnel houses and religious sanctuaries decorated with human bone. Named one of the ten best books of 2011 (London Evening Standard), it has garnered international attention for its combination of unique historical research and stunning photography.

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Mysteries in Depth: A 3-D Slideshow with 3-D Legend Gerald Marks
Date: Friday, December 14, 2012
Time: 8:00 PM  (Doors open at 7:00, there'll be refreshments and much to see))
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Exploring Mysteries has been a prominent feature in the work of artist Gerald Marks over the past four decades. Tonight, join this 3-D legend and former San Francisco Exploratorium artist in residence for a 3-D ode to the Nature of Vision. Seven “Chapters” of images will explore a wide range of topics...  Lost Art around the City, Aviation and Space, The JFK Assassination, People Lost in Devices, Liberty, Mysteries of Scale, and much more.

There will be a special segment featuring images of small specimens in 3-D, made using a desktop scanner. On January 5, Marks will be holding a Saturday workshop on this technique. More on that here.

Gerald Marks is an artist working along the border of art and science, specializing in stereoscopic 3-D since 1973. He may be best known for the 3-D videos he directed for The Rolling Stones during their Steel Wheels tour. He has taught at The Cooper Union, The New School for Social Research, and the School of Visual Arts, where he currently teaches Stereoscopic 3-D within the MFA program in Computer Art. He was artist in residence at San Francisco’s Exploratorium and a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Media Lab, where he worked with computer-generated holography. His Professor Pulfrich’s Universe installations are popular features in museums all over the world, including the Exploratorium, The N. Y. Hall of Science, and Sony ExploraScience in Beijing and Tokyo. He has done 3-D consulting, lecturing and design for scientific purposes for The American Museum of Natural History, the National Institutes of Health, and Discover Magazine. He has created a large variety of 3-D artwork for advertising, display, and pharmaceutical use, as well as broadcast organizations Fox and MTV. He has designed award winning projections and sets at the N.Y. Public Theater, SOHO Rep, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center and the Nashville Ballet, where he created stereoscopically projected sets. He created the 3-D mural in the 28th Street station of the #6 train in New York City’s subway. He did 3-D imaging of dance around the New York shoreline as part of an iLAB grant from the iLAND Foundation for using the arts to raise environmental consciousness.

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Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop: Special Holiday Edition, with Former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton
With Daisy Tainton, Former Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History
Dates: Sunday, December 16 (Special Holiday Edition!)
Time: 1 - 4 PM
Admission: $65
***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to class list
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy


Today, join former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton for a special Holiday-themed edition of Observatory's popular Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop. In this class, students will work with Rhinoceros beetles: nature's tiny giants. Each student will learn to make--and leave with their own!--shadowbox dioramas featuring carefully positioned beetles doing nearly anything you can imagine. Beetles and shadowboxes are provided, and an assortment of miniature furniture, foods, and other props will be available to decorate your habitat. Students need bring nothing, though are encouraged to bring along dollhouse props if they have a particular vision for their final piece; 1:12 scale work best.

Daisy Tainton was formerly Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History, and has been working with insects professionally for several years. Eventually her fascination with insects and  love of Japanese miniature food items naturally came together, resulting in cute and ridiculous museum-inspired yet utterly unrealistic dioramas. Beetles at the dentist? Beetles eating pie and knitting sweaters? Even beetles on the toilet? Why not?

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Ghoul A Go-Go Holiday Krampus Party with “DEVILS” Show Premiere!
Date: Saturday, December 22
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $13
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

* Premiere of Ghoul A Go-Go's "DEVILS" show with Vlad and Creighton appearing LIVE!!
* A screening of the bizarro Mexican holiday classic feature film Santa Claus (1959)! The devil Pitch is on the loose! Can Christmas be saved?
* "Beelzebab "Siren of Sodom" performs live burlesque!
* Mistress Dominae Drakonis beats the naughty!
* Mulled Wine! Krampus cake! Piñata! More fun than you can beat with a stick!

Ghoul A Go-Go and Morbid Anatomy are throwing a Krampus holiday party to celebrate the world premiere of Ghoul A Go-Go's new "DEVILS" show! The ghost of Sammy Davis Jr. will not be there, but Vlad and Creighton will pour on more entertainment than a naughty child can handle. Beelzebabe, Siren of Sodom, will perform her scorching "Bad Girls Go To Hell" burlesque--an act one archbishop cited as the cause of his fall from grace! To add to the Krampus festivities, Mistress Dominae Drakonis, in all her satanic majesty, will deal out beatings to the naughty. There will be mulled wine to spice things up even further, as well as a Krampus cake. For your visual entertainment, there will be a screening of the 1959 Mexican classic film, Santa Claus, featuring the the devil Pitch. A piñata will be beaten. You will also have the privilege of being the first to see the brand new Ghoul A Go-Go episode on the big screen in all its devilish glory! To grind things to halt, there will be an Observatory styled lecture on Christmas. And then back to the party! It'll be more fun than a sack full of children so wear your best Krampus costume!

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CLASS: Creating Stereoscopic 3-D Images of Small Specimens Using a Desktop Scanner
Workshop Class with Stereoscopic 3-D Artist Gerald Marks
Date: Saturday, January 5, 2013
Time: 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM with a short lunch break
Fee: $60
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
*** Class size is limited to 16; please RSVP to morbidanatomy[at]gmail.com

In this workshop class you will learn to produce high-quality stereoscopic images of small objects, using a conventional desktop scanner. Everyone in the class can expect to leave with at least one 3-D picture, ready to post on a the web, email, or include in digital slide show, and the knowledge of how to do the process. With this technique, quite a bit of magnification is possible, almost rivaling microscope work.

After scanning, we will work with the images in Adobe Photoshop, using the same basic approach that the instructor has developed for Stereoscopic 3-D images in general, so you will be learning a professional technique for working with 3-D image pairs.
We will primarily view and work with our 3-D images using traditional Anaglyph Red/Blue 3-D glasses but we can output our scan work to any 3-D viewing system, including all types of 3-D projection and 3-D Television. 3-D glasses will be provided.
We will be scanning the objects on a conventional desktop scanners, such as the Epson Perfection series, and working with the scans on a laptop, using Adobe Photoshop (any version). All of the computer work on the instructor's laptop will be projected large, and in 3-D, so that it will be easy to follow.

Bring to Class
The primary thing to bring to class is the object you wish to scan. Almost anything in your collection from about .25" to about 6" wide should work, as long as it holds together. (Slime, for example, doesn't hold together) Natural or man-made objects, such as coins or medals work great. Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral are all OK, as long as it will hold still for at least two exposures. Bring additional objects as some things scan better than others and there may be time to scan more.
Bring a flash drive, or a blank CD, to put your scans on and take home.

You may bring your own laptop, with Photoshop installed, but it is not required. Bring your own scanner, too, if you like (When transporting a scanner, remember to "lock" the scanner head!)
Gerald Marks is an artist working along the border of art and science, specializing in stereoscopic 3-D since 1973. He may be best known for the 3-D videos he directed for The Rolling Stones during their Steel Wheels tour. He has taught at The Cooper Union, The New School for Social Research, and the School of Visual Arts, where he currently teaches Stereoscopic 3-D within the MFA program in Computer Art. He was artist in residence at San Francisco's Exploratorium and a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Media Lab, where he worked with computer-generated holography. His Professor Pulfrich's Universe installations are popular features in museums all over the world, including the Exploratorium, The N. Y. Hall of Science, and Sony ExploraScience in Beijing and Tokyo. He has done 3-D consulting, lecturing and design for scientific purposes for The American Museum of Natural History, the National Institutes of Health, and Discover Magazine. He has created a large variety of 3-D artwork for advertising, display, and pharmaceutical use, as well as broadcast organizations Fox and MTV. He has designed award winning projections and sets at the N.Y. Public Theater, SOHO Rep, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center and the Nashville Ballet, where he created stereoscopically projected sets. He created the 3-D mural in the 28th Street station of the #6 train in New York City’s subway. He did 3-D imaging of dance around the New York shoreline as part of an iLAB grant from the iLAND Foundation for using the arts to raise environmental consciousness.
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Natural Histories: Extraordinary 
Rare Book Selections from the American Museum of Natural History Library
  
Illustrated lecture and Book Release Party with Tom Baione of New York's American Museum of Natural History
Date: Thursday, Jan 10
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
*** Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing

Most people are well acquainted with the front-stage wonders of New York's American Museum of Natural History--the world class habitat group dioramas, the highly stylized hall of biodiversity, the epic dinosaur skeletons; what is less well known is the equally astounding back-stage collection, which includes an world-renowned collection of exquisite, rare, and beautifully illustrated books on the natural sciences held by museum's research library. The new book Natural Histories: Extraordinary 
Rare Book Selections from the American Museum of Natural History Library
, edited by AMNH's Tom Baione, brings these hidden works to the fore, showcasing forty extraordinary works created between the 16th and 20th centuries, covering all seven continents, and spanning such diverse scientific fields as anthropology, astronomy, earth science,
 paleontology, and zoology. The book also features essays about each work by Museum curators, scientists, and librarians, as well as forty extraordinary, suitable-for-framing art prints of images from the book.

In tonight's highly illustrated lecture, join American Museum of Natural History's Boeschenstein Director of
 Library Services and volume editor Tom Baione for a look inside the Natural Histories... and a virtual trip behind the scenes of the Library's Rare Book Room. Attendees will also have the opportunity to purchase--and have signed!--their own copy of this gorgeous new volume. 

Tom Baione, a Brooklyn native, started working in the Museum's Library in 1995 
after attending Pratt Institute's School of Library and Information
 Science. After years in the Library's Special Collections and Reference 
Services units, Tom became the Library's Director in 2010. He is an active
 member of New York's Grolier Club and lives in midtown with his high
school sweetheart. The Museum was his favorite childhood destination and he still reports a thrill upon entering the museum each day.

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A Dark Day in New York: Dispatches from The New York Grimpendium: Lecture and Launch Party for Book of Death-related Sites and Artifacts in New York
An Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with J.W. Ocker
Date: Monday, January 14
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Produced by Morbid Anatomy
*** Copies of The New York Grimpendium will be available for sale and signing

J.W. Ocker spent a year traveling around New York, visiting some 250 death-related sites and artifacts in the state. A brain collection. A ship graveyard. An abandoned spiritualist mecca. And yes, even The Morbid Anatomy Library. For this presentation, he will be showing pictures and recounting some of the stories from from the darkest corners of the state.

J.W. Ocker grew up in Maryland and currently lives in New Hampshire. He is the author of The New England Grimpendium, for which he won the Lowell Thomas Award for travel writing, and the recently released The New York Grimpendium. He writes about his travels to strange sites around the country at his site OddThingsIveSeen.com.

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Medieval Robots: Automata Since the First Millennium
An illustrated lecture with Elly R. Truitt,  Bryn Mawr College
Date: Friday, January 18 (PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE)
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Robots are everywhere. They build our cars, fight our wars, and clean our homes. Robots help us define concepts of humanity, explore the ethical ramifications of knowledge, and question the role of complex technology in our lives. Yet these liminal objects have a long history. Medieval robots, also called automata, appear throughout the Middle Ages in literature, art, courtly ceremony, and liturgical ritual. They could reveal the time of day or the date of your death, and they might be made by artisans or sorcerers. This illustrated lecture will explore these seductive, strange, and sometimes terrifying objects, and will uncover the hidden medieval past of our robotic present.

Elly R. Truitt is Assistant Professor of Medieval History at Bryn Mawr College. She has published articles in a number of scholarly journals, and is currently finishing a book on medieval automata. She also has a blog, called Medieval Robots. She lives in Philadelphia, PA and is left-handed.

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You can find out more about all of these events here, or sign up for them on Facebook by clicking here.

Image: A bonneted figure at the Crypt of the Santa Maria Della Pace monastery, Palermo, Sicily by tonight's speaker Paul Koudounaris.