The Corpse Statue Gate of Sint Olofskapel, Amsterdam : Guest Post by Jantine Zandbergen

When in Amsterdam of late, I stumbled upon the enigmatic and beautiful gate pictured above, but could find little about it in English. Morbid Anatomy reader Jantine Zandbergen found this article in Dutch; her (very kind!) translation of it appears below. You can find out more about Jantine and her work on her website by clicking here. The photograph is my own, and the drawing comes from the original article, which can be viewed here.

Hope for a better life
The ‘Olofskapel’ (‘Olofs chapel’) originated in the 15th century, and is the second oldest church building in Amsterdam. It’s assumed the chapel was build for sailors from Norway, that’s probably why it’s named after the Norwegian king Olav who converted to Christianity among the year 1000. There are other theories about the name of the chapel though, one of them being named after Saint Odulphus, the Brabantian patron saint of dikes (the chapel is located on the ‘Zeedijk’ and ‘Seadike’).

At the end of the 15th century the chapel had been extended several times. A polygonal chapel was attached (‘Jeruzalemkapel’) which supposedly housed a copy of the Holy Grail. The chapel was torn down in 1644.

In 1917 the building lost its religious purpose. Over time it’s been used a cheese market, a food distribution center and an art contact center. The interior was destroyed by a fire in 1966 and the building now houses a conference center.

The cemetery gate
A design drawing of the port (second image down) is included in the book Architectura Moderna ofte Bouwinge van onsen tyt from 1631 which deals with the work of Hendrick de Keyser. In 1620 a cemetery was created on the Westermarkt, on the north and east side of the Westerkerk (‘Westerchurch’). The cemetery didn’t exist for long, and was moved in 1655 to the end of the Bloemgracht, now ‘Tweede Marnixplantsoen’. The gate to the cemetery on the side of the Prinsengracht is now the entrance to the Prinsenhuis next to the church. The southern gate was relocated to the Olofskapel.

Corpse statue
The sandstone statue is placed above the main entrance, it was made by Hendrick de Keyser. The caption ‘Spes Altera Vitae’ means ‘Hope for a better life’. There are other ‘corpse statues’ like this one known by the hand of sculptor Colijn de Nole: they can be found in the Grote Kerk of Vianen and the Eusebiuskerk in Arnhem. The shown corpses (a skeleton or decaying dead body) lays on a woven mat just like the skeleton above the cemetery gate. Hendrick de Keyser also portrayed the late Willem van Oranje on a similar surface, it might have been a common form of hygiene.

Life and Death Contrasted (ca.1770), The Public Domain Review

From one of my very favorite websites, The Public Domain Review via The Wellcome Library:

A striking image from the British engraver and publisher Valentine Green, illustrating the idea that life, with all its frivolity and distractions (symbolized by the romance novel, parlor games, and high society lady in all her finery) is in fact – echoing the sentiment of Ecclesiastes (quoted on the obelisk) – nothing but “vanity”, all lives as they do inevitably ending in death. The subtitle – “an essay on woman” – does, however, raise the question of whether Green is making a further comment on womanhood itself...

To read the full story--and see an additional image--click here.

The Voice that Inspired a Nation: The Dentures of Sir William Churchill (1874-1965) : Guest Post by Kristin Hussey, Hunterian Museum, London

Kristin Hussey--Assistant Curator of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons with responsibility for the Odontological Collection--has kindly agreed to write a series of guest posts for Morbid Anatomy about some of the most curious objects in her collection.

The sixth post from that series follows; you can view all posts in this series by clicking here.

His widely broadcast speeches have become synonymous with the Second World War. But how differently would we remember his famous words if they had been said without Sir Winston Churchill’s infamous lisp?

Churchill was born in 1874, and by the turn of the century was already making a name for himself as a successful military man and politician. In 1900 he was elected to Parliament for Oldham and by 1911 was the First Lord of the Admiralty. In the time before sound recordings were widely available, journalists were quick to point out Churchill’s notable speech impediment, often described as a stutter. His natural lisp became one of his most distinctive features as a speaker which was amplified as radio broadcasts became more prevalent.

When it came to having dentures made for the great man, Churchill entrusted the dental technician Derek Cudlipp to make and repair several sets. Most dentures are made so the metal plate adheres closely to the palate- a feature which would have helped to reduce lisping. However, as Churchill famously said, ‘My impediment is no hindrance.’ Well aware of the power of his recognizable voice, Churchill consulted his dentist Wilfred Fish to come up with a solution. Cudlipp and Fish worked to craft dentures which would leave a gap between the plate and the roof of the mouth, thus retaining Churchill’s distinctive speaking style.

These dentures, worn by Churchill around 1941, have a gold base with platinum clasps and mineral teeth. While this set appears to be in good condition, Churchill reportedly threw his dentures at his staff when frustrated or angry. 

Images:

1. Winston Churchill in Downing Street, June 1943. Wikicommons via the Imperial War Museum.
2. Skeletal partial upper denture, with gold base, platinum clasps and mineral teeth, made for and worn by Winston Churchill, c. 1941. RCSOM/K 20.9. Copyright the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England

Edward Gorey Documentary Needs Your Help : A Plea From Morbid Anatomy Provocateur in Residence Mark Dery

Mark Dery--Morbid Anatomy Provocateur in Residence and author of a forthcoming biography of Edward Gorey--has brought to our attention a Kickstarter project beyond worthy of our support, namely a new documentary on that inimitable artist/writer/eccentric Edward Gorey. Below is a characteristically brilliant guest post by Mr. Dery about the project, which you can support by clicking here, and learn more about in the Kickstarter video above. Also: word is that The Morbid Anatomy Museum might well be hosting a special screening for the film when completed, so stay tuned for more on that as it develops! And, if you love Edward Gorey as we do, please consider supporting this important and excellent project!

He shrank from the word “macabre,” routinely applied to his art and writing, yet the first novels he read, after teaching himself to read at the age of three, were of course Frankenstein and Dracula. He kept a mummy’s head in his New York apartment, the accidental discovery of which, while he was out, resulted in him being called down to the police station for a gentlemanly colloquy on suspicion of murder. He wrote stories about the infanticidal Moors Murderers and little innocents sacrificed to Insect Gods. He penned a deadpan parody of Edwardian pornography in which Gerald, infamously, “did a terrible thing to Elsie with a saucepan.” He was an ardent collector of post-mortem daguerreotypes—specifically, Victorian photos of dead babies, which he pressed a reluctant friend into procuring, surreptitiously, at postcard shows, back when such tastes were outré. An imperishable aesthete, he loved the proto-Surrealist melodramas of the silent-movie director Feuillade and the waspish wit of the screamingly gay Victorian novelist Ronald Firbank, yet was also an unapologetic fan of straight-to-video horror movies like Suture and insisted with a perfectly straight face that William Shatner was one of the great thespians of our age. Though endlessly tolerant of the black-clad fans who loitered palely on his doorstep, he is undoubtedly shoulder-rolling in his grave at his reputation, in some quarters, as the genial, bearded Granddaddy of the Goths—or would be, if he were buried, which he isn’t, having been cremated and scattered on Cape Cod, though he does have a disappointingly perfunctory grave marker—no urns, weeping willows, or lachrymose angels—in the family plot in Ohio, of all unimaginably perverse places.

He is, of course, Edward Gorey, legendary eccentric and the author and illustrator of such poisonous little morsels of black-comic camp as The Gashlycrumb Tinies and The Pious Infant.

And he needs your help.

Christopher Seufert, a Cape Cod-based photographer and documentary filmmaker who is sitting on top of an incredible trove of rare, never-before-seen video footage of the reclusive, brilliant Gorey, has launched a Kickstarter bid for his Edward Gorey Documentary Project, here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrisseufert/the-edward-gorey-documentary-project.

Seufert’s interviews with Gorey, and his cinema-verite footage of Gorey being Gorey, are fabulous stuff, but you, along with other, far less deserving souls, will never see them if Seufert doesn’t make his modest funding goal, which is why I’m fervently hoping you’ll consider making a rattling sound in his Kickstarter cup.

In the course of interviewing Seufert for the Gorey biography I’m writing for Little, Brown, I’ve gotten a glimpse of Seufert’s Gorey archives, and can say with unfeigned enthusiasm that they constitute a cabinet of droll, delightful curiosities: Gorey herding his many cats (and conversing with them all the while) around a house overstuffed with finials and sugar skulls and teetering heaps of books; Gorey rehearsing puppet plays with his troupe the Theatricule Stoique; Gorey eating at and holding forth at the local cafe where he breakfasted and lunched every day; Gorey musing, idly, about the myriad subjects his restless, polymathic mind ranged over, from the grade-Z horror films he loved to Victorian nonsense verse to his own, utterly sui generis art.

If you are a person who has ever had a fantod stuffed and preserved under glass, or who owns a well-thumbed copy of the eleventh volume of The Encyclopedia of Unimaginable Customs, or who applauded when the infant’s trajectory passed him over the rectory/ and into a lily-choked pond, please consider donating to the Edward Gorey Documentary Project. Time flies! Think of the children. Specifically, of Fanny, sucked dry by a leech. And Titus, who flew into bits. And my personal favorite, Neville, who died of ennui. Like you, it has always been my life’s dream to die of ennui, but not before the Edward Gorey Documentary https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrisseufert/the-edward-gorey-documentary-project is fully funded. “Remember the widows and orphans,” as Edward admonished, in the little sign he drew for the Yarmouth Port café he frequented.

Morbidly, Mark Dery
(Fellow devotee of the Morbid Anatomy Museum and author of the forthcoming Doubtful Guest: The Mysterious Mind and Legendary Life of Edward Gorey)

Image via Flavorwire.

Death's Heads and Tomb Markers of Amsterdam and Leiden

While in the Netherlands last week for the Amsterdam Anatomy Weekend at the Museum Vrolik, I had the time to take in a three wonderful churches: de Nieuwe Kerk ("new church") and de Oude Kerk ("old church") in Amsterdam and, in Leiden, Pieterskerk (or "Pilgrim Fathers' Church"), thanks very much to Bart Grob and his magnificent Museum Boerhaave bicycle.

All of the churches were, on their own, wonderfully captivating spaces, lofty and sober and aglow with that very special Dutch light; they were also, to my delight, filled with dozens of fascinating tomb markers, many of them engraved with fanciful death's heads and other enigmatic images. You can see a few of my favorite examples above, and can view a more complete photoset by clicking here.

The Body Anatomized: New Studio Art and Art History Class with School of Visual Art's Jonathon Rosen, Beginning June 2

We at Morbid Anatomy are beyond delighted to be offering "The Body Anatomized," a new hybrid studio art and art history class with Jonathon Rosen of the School of Visual Art. Over eight sessions, our instructor Jonathon Rosen will present illustrated lectures covering the rich and storied history of anatomical visualization, covering everything from Catholic relics to the "flayed angels" of Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty (top image); Italian wax Anatomical Venuses to the diagrammatic illustrations of Christian Wilhelm Braune (middle image); Clive Barker’s Faust to the man machine of Fritz Kahn (bottom image). Under Jonathon's ongoing critical feedback and guidance, students will generate finished artworks in the medium of their choice incorporating medicine or anatomy as a point of departure, be it personal or political, didactic or obscure.

The course runs over 8 Mondays from June 2nd to July 21st. The class is limited to only 20 people. Full details follow, and tickets can be purchased here. Hope very much to see you there!

The Body Anatomized: Art Studio and History Class with SVA's Jonathon Rosen
Dates: Mondays June 2 to July 21 (8 sessions)
Admission: $300 (Must purchase ticket here)
Time: 7-10pm
Class limited to 20 people
Morbid Anatomy Museum (New Space) , 424A 3rd Avenue (Corner of 7th Street and 3rd Avenue)
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

Temple of the soul or soft machine? The body is where human art, science, culture, politics and medicine all intersect. This hybrid lecture/studio course takes inspiration from artists ancient to post-modern who use medicine and anatomy as a point of departure for personal, political, religious or scientific commentary.

Over eight sessions, Jonathon Rosen will explore the influence of traditional medical imagery on contemporary art-making and pop culture through the lens of history, culture and aesthetics. Examples will range from medieval doctor’s sketchbooks and illuminated manuscripts, via Renaissance medical surrealism and 19^th century medical devices, to contemporary works by Damien Hirst, John Isaacs, the virtual human project, BodyWorlds, and beyond. On the way we will also touch on aesthetic surgery, genetics, biomechanics, medical museums, anatomy in movies and French underground comics.

With Jonathon's ongoing critical feedback and guidance, students will generate finished artworks incorporating medicine or anatomy as a point of departure, be it personal or political, didactic or obscure. This work can be singular or narrative, 2D, 3D, static or moving, in any medium, and projects are not required to be anatomically correct (and please note: Jonathon will not be giving how-to instruction in traditional medical illustration). There will also be an ongoing in-class assignment, based around anatomizing pre-existing vintage images.

SYLLABUS

Class 1: Coming Attractions. A visual overview of the course as an introduction to the history of medical-art & imagery including an introduction to your instructor’s work. Discussion of class, homework and assignments.

Class 2: Sacred Anatomy and Materia Medica. The invention of scientific illustration: The earliest printed medical textbooks and the pioneers of human dissection. From early Islamic to late medieval European. Barbers, surgeons and wound men, demons, miraculous limb transplants, hybrid monsters and diagnosis by zodiac.

Class 3: The emergence of modernity and the culture of dissection in Renaissance culture. Vesalius, Leonardo Da Vinci, Realdo Colombo, Charles Estienne, Jacopo Berengario da Carpi.

Class 4: Medical Chic: Baroque to Enlightenment era. The Anatomy Theater, Albinus. The Altlas of Jean Baptiste Marc Bourgery. Hogarth and satires of medicine. Spotlight on Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty.

Class 5: 19th century; Optical devices, x-rays, prosthetics, automatons, pop-up books & anatomical manikins. Medical Museums, Mutter, Vrolik, La Specola & wax figuration. Etienne-Jules Marey and motion capture.

Class 6: 20^th century; Medical Industrial Complex: Fritz Khan and mechanical/ metaphorical bodies. Vintage Educational anatomy & health films: How the eyes and ears work. Illustrations by Netter. Vintage Chinese medical posters.

Class 7: Fantastic Voyage: Clive Barker’s Faust, Stan Brakhage’s the act of seeing with one’s own eyes. Body Worlds. New imaging: virtual cadavers, prosthetics, braces, body scanning, genetics, medical animation. Growing body parts and sensor-driven prosthetics. New Artists including; Marseille collective Le Dernier Cri’s Hopital Brut, Damien Hurst, John Isaacs.

Class 8
: Final project due / critique.

Jonathon Rosen is a NY-based artist and animator who teaches at the School of Visual Arts. He has worked with Jean Michel Basquiat and Tim Burton (the journal drawings, Sleepy Hollow), and made artwork for ID Magazine, Popular Science, Oxford Review, New Scientist, Psychology Today, Discover Magazine, RCA Records, Rolling Stone, MTV, the New York Times Science Times and Sunday Magazine, and many more. His work has been shown at PS.1, and is in the collections of David Cronenberg and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Images:

1. Gautier D'Agoty; Anatomy of a Woman's Spine via here.
2. Christian Wilhelm Braune, via Ars Anatomica. 
3. Fritz Kahn via here.

Morbid Anatomy at Philadelphia's Wagner Free Institute: Outsider Perspectives with Guest Curators Joanna Ebenstein and Evan Michelson

For those in the greater Philadelphia area: next Thursday, May 22, Joanna Ebenstein (founder of Morbid Anatomy) and Evan Michelson (Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence and Co-Star of Science Channel's "Oddities") will be presenting illustrated talks as "guest curators" at one of our very favorite gems of untouched Natural History: The Wagner Free Institute!

The lecture is free (!!!) and will take place in the Wagner's time-travelingly incredible 19th century lecture theatre complete with dusty specimens, magic lantern projector, and antique wooden chairs. The talks will be followed by a wine reception in the museum for only $10 You can order tickets by clicking here.

What, I respectfully ask, could be better than wine among the specimens?

Hope very much to see you there!

Illustrated lecture with Morbid Anatomy's Joanna Ebenstein and Oddities' Evan Michelson
Date: Thursday, May 22

Time: 6:00 - 7:00 PM (Free!)
Annual Member Reception 7:00 - 8:00 PM ($10)
Tickets: Register here for this lecture  and the Reception
*** Offsite at The Wagner Free Institute, 1700 W Montgomery Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19121

Tonight, please join Morbid Anatomy for a special night at one of our favorite museums of all time--The Wagner Free Institute in Philadelphia! For this event, Joanna Ebenstein (Morbid Anatomy founder) and Evan Michelson (Science Channel's "Oddities") have been invited to be guest curators, and, as such, will each give a short, illustrated talk on a few of their favorite artifacts in the Wagner's untouched 19th century collection. Best of all, the talk will take place in one of our favorite spaces ever: the Wagner's time-travelingly incredible 19th century lecture theatre complete with dusty specimens, magic lantern projector, and antique wooden chairs.

Following the presentation, the Wagner's Annual Member Reception will take place upstairs in the museum with finger food, drinks, and a chance to view highlighted specimens. The Member Reception is only one of the great benefits of becoming a friend of the Institute. Guests of members may attend the reception for $10. Learn more about our great membership perks and how to join by clicking here.

Photo of specimens at The Wagner Free Institute by Joanna Ebenstein

Call for Papers: Bodies Beyond Borders: The Circulation of Anatomical Knowledge, 1750-1950, January 7-9 2015

This call for papers just in from my new friend Pieter Huistra, one of the many international attendees I had the pleasure to meet at last weekend's phenomenal Amsterdam Anatomy Weekend at the Museum Vrolik.

The conference will take place in Leuven, Belgium from January 7-9, 2015 with confirmed speakers including Sam Alberti, Sven Dupré, Rina Knoeff, Helen MacDonald, Anna Maerker, Chloé Pirson, Natasha Ruiz-Gómez and Michael Sappol.

The call for papers follow; abstracts of 300 words must be submitted by June 1, 2014 to pieter.huistra [at] arts.kuleuven.be. You can find out more here.

Bodies Beyond Borders. The Circulation of Anatomical Knowledge, 1750-1950
Leuven, 7-9 January 2015

Bodies Beyond Borders is a scholarly conference on the circulation of anatomical knowledge that indicates the heighted interest in the history of anatomy in Leuven. This conference fits in with two current projects on the history of anatomy in Leuven. The first is a research project on Anatomy, scientific authority and the visualized body in medicine and culture (Belgium, 1780-1930), that is conducted in our research group, Cultural History since 1750. The project is supervised by Kaat Wils, and co-supervised by Raf de Bont, Jo Tollebeek and Geert Vanpaemel, and has two PhD fellows, Tinne Claes and Veronique Deblon and one postdoctoral fellow, Pieter Huistra. This research project takes as its object the history of anatomy in Belgium in the ‘long nineteenth century’.

Secondly, Leuven will celebrate a Vesalius year in 2014-2015, to commemorate the 500th birthday of Andreas Vesalius. The mainstay of the programme will be the exhibition Unravelling the body. The theatre of anatomy, of which Geert Vanpaemel will serve as curator. This exhibition studies Vesalius himself, but also his work influenced representations of the human body and the tradition of anatomical research. These themes will also be included in Bodies Beyond Borders, our conference that takes up the question: how does anatomical knowledge move from site to another? Whereas our research project focuses specifically on Belgium, the conference will have a broad geographical scope in its topics as well as its speakers.

Call for Papers

How does anatomical knowledge move from one site to another? Between 1750 and 1950 the study of anatomy underwent great changes, as a part of the development of scientific medicine, through public anatomies, as well as in the interplay between the two. How did these changes spread geographically? How did knowledge about newly discovered lesions travel from one hospital to another? What was the role of anatomical models in the spread of the public consciousness of syphilis, for example? Was the spread of this knowledge hindered by national borders, or did anatomical knowledge cross those borders easily? These questions are concerned with what James Secord terms ‘knowledge in transit’. To seek an answer to these questions, a conference focusing on the circulation of anatomical knowledge between 1750 and 1950 will be organized in Leuven from 7-9 January 2015. Confirmed speakers are Sam Alberti, Sven Dupré, Rina Knoeff, Helen MacDonald, Anna Maerker, Chloé Pirson, Natasha Ruiz-Gómez and Michael Sappol.

Knowledge does not move by itself – it has to be carried. To better understand how anatomical knowledge moves from place to place, we will seek to trace the trajectories of its bearers. Some of those bearers were tied very specifically to the discipline of anatomy: wax models, preserved bodies (or parts of them) or anatomical atlases, for example. These objects are polysemic in nature, tending to have different meanings in different contexts and for different audiences. It makes the question of how anatomical knowledge travelled all the more pertinent if, for example, wax models that went from a Florentine museum to a Viennese medical training institution underwent a shift in meaning en route. But bearers of knowledge less specifically tied to anatomy were equally important: articles, books and individual persons to name but a few examples.

For our conference we welcome contributions regarding the geographical movement of anatomical knowledge between 1750 and 1950. We are equally interested in ‘scientific’ and ‘public’ anatomy – as well as in exchanges between the two domains. Therefore, we encourage contributions about bearers of anatomical knowledge as wide-ranging as persons (scientists, students, freaks), objects (models, preparations, bodies or body parts), visual representations (films, atlases, wall maps) and practices (dissections, travelling exhibitions), as well as their (transnational and intranational) trajectories.

Paper proposals must be submitted by 1 June 2014.

Please send a 300-word abstract to pieter.huistra[at]arts.kuleuven.be.

Notification of acceptance: early July, 2014.

Image: Enrique Simonet, "Anatomía del corazón; ¡Y tenía corazón!; La autopsia," 19th Century

Anatomical Ex-Voto of Lungs from The Morbid Anatomy Library : Guest Report by Museum Studies Student Liza Young, St. John's University

Liza Young--a museum studies student at St. John's University--recently chose a Neapolitan tin votive, or ex-voto, residing in the Morbid Anatomy Library as the subject for a school research project. Her task: to take an artifact of her choosing and research its provenance, situate it historically, and write for it a museum-quaility object record. 

Below are her findings in truncated version; you can read a much more detailed report of her investigation by clicking here; you can find out more about Liza and her work by clicking here.

Anatomical Ex-Voto of Lungs from The Morbid Anatomy Library
Work Type: Italian Religious Visual Work
Title: Anatomical Votives of Lungs, or Ex-Voto
Creator: Unknown
Material: Tin
Dimensions: 3 ¾ x 4 ¼ inches 
Work Type: Italian Religious Visual Work
Creation Date: 1890-1960
Subject: Religion
Style: Catholic
Culture: Italian
Materials and Technique: Tin plate stamped with image of lungs

The artifact I have chosen for this project was discovered at a flea market in Italy by Joanna Ebenstein, the Creative Director of the Morbid Anatomy Library and Museum. This anatomical ex-voto, or votive, bears a stamped image of the ailing lungs of an unknown Catholic Italian. Anatomical ex-votos function as representations of body parts that are either in need of a saint’s blessing, or as an homage of thanks to a saint for a blessing given. The external parts of the body may be used more metaphorically. A leg may represent an injury or a request for safe travel. Eyes may create a connection between the living and the dead (not unlike darshan). Internal organs, on the other hand, tend to relate directly to a literal illness. Today they are used primarily in Greek Orthodox and Catholic practices, where they are known as tama (Greek) and milagros, dijes, or promesas (Spanish). The exact date of this object is unknown, though it is likely that it was created in the early half of the 20th century. This dating is derived in part by the presence of two golden orbs on the left lung, which indicates a specific understanding of where the individual’s disease was located, implying the existence of advanced medical practice.

Thanks so much, Liza, for this excellent report, and we hope to work with you again in the future!

Image: © The Morbid Anatomy Library

The Altar of the Souls in Purgatory, Basilica of Saints Justus and Pastor, Barcelona : Guest post by Kaiser Noir

Whilst in Barcelona recently, Kaiser Noir--historian, tour guide and co-organizer for the Barcelona Congress of Curious Peoples, and director of Kriminal Kabarett--took me on a special visit to the grim and fabulous Basilica of Saints Justus and Pastor. I asked Kaiser to write a brief post about the church and its entrancing shrine dedicated to the souls in purgatory; his text follows, and the above images are my own:

The most fascinating church in Barcelona, the Basilica of saints Justus and Pastor, has a long history related to martyrdom, funerary rites and the supernatural world. The temple is unique because its preservation is exceptional (surviving wars, looting and religious persecution) and it is perhaps the oldest Christian sanctuary in the city.

The pagan roots of this church are still discussed. Although archeological evidences are unclear, this might have been the place where the temple of Castor and Pollux, two Graeco-Roman divinized heroes, once stood. Their names were Christianized and changed, and they became the saints Justus and Pastor, two christian boys killed near Madrid in the times of the emperor Diocletian. The first Christians from "Barcino" (the name of Barcelona in the Roman times) also suffered these persecutions in the beginning of the IV century A.D. The most famous victim was saint Eulalia, patron of the city. The surroundings of the church were used as a cemetery for these martyrs, whose relics were greatly appreciated. This fact consecrated the place as one of the holiest in the city.
When the Germanic invaders, the Goths, conquered Spain, Barcelona became the court of the king Ataulf and the first version of this church was built. Since then, the temple enjoyed royal protection, only interrupted by the Muslim invasion, when it is said that the church was used as a mosque. Louis the Pious (son of Charlemagne) retook the city in the year 801 and confered an unusual privilege to this church: it was the sacramental testament. In the chapel of Saint Felix it was possible to declare and confirm the last will before dying, a tradition absolutely legal until 1991.

It is also said that the Virgin of Montserrat, protector of Catalonia (which some authors believe to be a Christian version of the goddess Isis) was saved here after it was discovered in the IX century A.D. For this reason, the architect Antoni Gaudi came here to pray everyday.

But the most astonishing and haunted chapel in this church (a building rebuilt in the XIV century in a majestic and splendorous Gothic style) is the altar of the Souls in the Purgatory. We can identify this masterpiece as a work from the last half of the XIX century, because some Neo-Gothic details were common in this date. The altar shows terrified human beings of all conditions burning and being punished for their sins in their afterlife. Only the pilgrims and the most devout visitors could save these souls from the flames of God and eternal damnation. Its extraordinary theatrical scenography evidences its Baroque conception and the origins of this ancient tradition from the Catholic countries. Maybe the aristocrats and the nobility, who lived in Renaissance and Rococo palaces in the neighborhood of the church, used this place as a memorial for the futility of their lives. This cult around the ideas of Purgatory and Hell were also present in other churches of Spain, the most spectacular case being the "Iglesia de las Animas" in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia. Its neoclassical facade shows impressive and hellish scenes of punished souls. This church was part of a mystic itinerary, the "Stations of the Cross" in the last section of the Saint James way.

Definitively, the basilica of Saint Justus and Pastor is perhaps the most magnificent temple after the cathedral and there are still more stories to be discovered, as some tombstones made by the first masons and exquisite funerary inscriptions.

You can find out more about Kaiser Noir and his work by clicking here.

Henry Morton Stanley’s Human Tooth Necklace: Guest Post by Kristin Hussey, Hunterian Museum, London

Kristin Hussey--Assistant Curator of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons with responsibility for the Odontological Collection--has kindly agreed to write a series of guest posts for Morbid Anatomy about some of the most curious objects in her collection.

The fifth post from that series follows; you can view all posts in this series by clicking here.

Henry Morton Stanley’s human tooth necklace and his infamous last African Expedition (1886-1889)
Of all the museum objects related to teeth, human tooth necklaces hold an enduring fascination. The Odontological Collection contains one such necklace associated with one of the most infamous colonial explorers, Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904). Stanley was a Welsh-born journalist who is remembered as a controversial figure for his expedition to find Scottish explorer David Livingstone and his role in the exploitation of the Congo, on behalf of King Leopold II of Belgium. In 1886, Stanley set out on what was to be his last African expedition from which he returned with the human tooth necklace and the idea for his book In Darkest Africa.

The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition was organised in 1886 with Stanley at its head to rescue Eduard Schnitzer (known as Emin Pasha), the Governor of the Egyptian Province of Equatoria who was thought to be trapped by the Mahdist uprising. The trip took three years and was met by constant set back and controversy. While Stanley travelled ahead with the ‘Advance Column’ (Figure 1), a large proportion of the expedition was left behind to form a part of the ‘Rear Column’ which dissolved into violence, desertion and illness. Emin Pasha was eventually located and reluctantly brought to the East Coast city of Bagamoyo in 1889. Inspired by his journey, Stanley wrote In Darkest Africa (1890). Upon his return to England, Stanley and the surviving members of the Expedition initially received acclaim, although they later faced criticism for the numbers of deaths incurred by the party.

This necklace, composed of 34 human teeth held by braided fibres, was donated to the Museum of the Odontological Society in November 1890 by R.H. Woodhouse accompanied by a letter from Stanley himself. Stanley reported that the necklace was taken from a fallen warrior after a fight between his party and a tribe on the Ituri River. The necklace was brought back to England as evidence of the cannibal tribes Stanley claimed to have encountered on his expeditions into the Congo. In their discussions, the members of the Odontological Society were particularly interested in the prevalence of caries, or tooth decay, in the teeth of the necklace. Tooth decay was thought at the time to be a disease of what they referred to as the ‘civilised world’ due to its association with sugar. The President noted in the Transactions of the Society that such human tooth necklaces were commonly known to be worn as trophies. The teeth for this necklace were reportedly obtained by burning the skulls of vanquished enemies.

Many museum collections contain human tooth necklaces brought back by colonial explorers who used them as evidence of cannibalistic practices amongst the tribes they encountered. Although certain indigenous groups in this region and elsewhere in the world such as the South Pacific performed cannibalistic rituals, the connection with tooth necklaces is not as clear. The cultural meanings of human tooth necklaces are complex. Some scholars consider them to be prestige items in which power from slain enemies or ancestors is passed to the wearer. Human and animal teeth have been used in cultures around the world in personal ornamentation to indicate status, wealth or for medical purposes such as charms to ward off tooth-ache.

Images:

1. H.M. Stanley and the officers of the Advance Column, Cairo, 1890. Wikicommons
2. Necklace of human teeth brought back from the Congo region by H.M. Stanley, RCSOM/M 4.2. Copyright the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons
3. Meeting the Rear Column at Banalya, In Darkest Africa (1890) Wikicommons.

Announcing the 2014 "Congress for Curious People," in Conjunction with Coney Island USA, April 25th - May 4th

Morbid Anatomy is thrilled to announce, in conjunction with Coney Island USA, the 2014 "Congress for Curious People"--a ten day series of lectures and performances culminating in a two day symposium, all of which explore curiosity and curiosities broadly considered. This year's Congress takes "simulation" as its theme, and will feature many of our all-time favorite international scholars, artists, performers and thinkers, including Evan Michelson, Edgar Oliver, Les the Mentalist, Shannon Taggart, Biran Catling, Anthony Matt, Zoe Beloff, John Troyer, Mat Fraser, Salvador Olguin, Amy Herzog, Jennifer Miller, Betsy Bradley, Ronni Thomas and Chris Muller.

The full schedule for the Congress for Curious Peoples follows. You can find out more about all events--and purchase tickets!--by clicking here. All events take place at Coney Island USA in Brooklyn, New York and are supported by The British Council and a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities. Hope very much to see you there!

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Opening Party
Friday, April 25, 2014 - 8:00pm
More here.

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Alumni Weekend

Saturday, April 26, 2014 - 1:00pm - Sunday, April 27, 2014 - 7:00pm

More here.

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Industrial Ladies - A lecture by Evan Michelson

Monday, April 28, 2014 - 7:30pm
More here.

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Desire and the Sea - A performance by Edgar Oliver

Monday, April 28 at 9:00pm

More here.

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Acep Hale: Chicanery, Counting, and Cee-lo: Memory and Simulation in Service to Skulduggery

Tuesday, April 29, 2014 - 7:30pm

More here.

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A Thrilling Journey Into the Mind with Les the Mentalist

Tuesday, April 29, 2014 - 9:00pm

More here.

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The Coney Island Beach Ball - A Vogue Competition between the House of Vogue 3D and The Coney Island Dancers

Wednesday, April 30, 2014 - 9:00pm

More here.

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Kirlian Devices, William Burroughs, and Radionic Photography - An Illustrated Series of Lectures by Shannon Taggart, James Riley, Doug Skinner and Anthony Matt

Thursday, May 1, 2014 - 7:30pm

More here.

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Mechanical Medium - A film by Zoe Beloff with live sound by Gen. Ken Montgomery

Thursday, May 1, 2014 - 9:00pm

More here.

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TravSD: From Angels to Anarchists: The Evolution of the Marx Brothers
Friday, May 2, 2014 - 7:30pm
More here.

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Penny Arcade at the Penny Arcade

Friday, May 2, 2014 - 9:00pm

More here.

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The Congress for Curious People Symposium on "Simulation"
Saturday, May 3 and Sunday, May 4 at 11:00 AM - 6 PM

Saturday, May 3, 2014 - 11:00am

11:00am: SIMULATION AND RELIGION

Sarah Johnson’s lecture on Jacques Marchais and the replica of a Tibetan Monastery on Staten Island. Followed by a film clip by Sal Olguin and a panel discussion moderated by Don Jolly and featuring Sarah Johnson, and Sal Olguin.

12:30pm: Lunch

1:30pm: POP, THE PARANORMAL AND OTHER MYTHS WE LIVE: CONTEMPLATING THE LIMINAL

Shannon Taggart, Acep Hale, and George Hansen who will give three short presentations on Myth and Popular Culture, Michael Jackson’s After Life, and Uri Geller at the Crossroads. Followed by a Q and A, moderated by Aaron Beebe

3:30pm: THE HISTORY OF DISPLAY

Chris Muller’s lecture on the history of display. Followed by World’s Fair home movies and a panel discussion moderated by Joanna Ebenstein and featuring Betsy Bradley and Chris Muller.

5:00pm: Break

5:30pm: Screening: “Vanished! A Video Seance” (1999, 75 minutes) by Brian Catling. Followed by a Q and A with the artist.

7:00pm Dinner for Congressional Pass Holders and Participants.

Sunday, May 4, 2014 - 11:00am

11:00am: “PASSING”

Adrienne Albright’s lecture on Medieval Cross-dressers. Followed by a performance by Tara Mateik, a simulated talk by Amy Herzog, and a panel discussion moderated by Amy Herzog and featuring Jennifer Miller, Martha Wilson, Tara Mateik, and Adrienne Albright.

12:30pm: Lunch

1:30pm: A VISIT TO THE SIDESHOW

3:00pm: Screening of Ronni Thomas' Morbid Anatomy Presents' “PHANTASAMAGORIA”

3:30pm: THE NORMAL, THE ABNORMAL, AND THE PATHOLOGICAL ON DISPLAY

John Troyer, Joanna Ebenstein and Mat Fraser on “the Normal, the Abnormal, and the Pathological on Display” followed by a panel discussion moderated by John Troyer.

Light and Dust: A Reading of Johannes Jacob Scheuchzer's 'Homo ex Humo': A Guest Post by Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence Richard Barnett

This April, we have been delighted to host Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow and medical historian Richard Barnett as Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence. This is the first of what we hope will be many posts wherein Richard responds to objects, ideas and artifacts in our collection. Here, he draws out the intricate tangle of ideas in the the illustrations of Scheuchzer's 1731 Physica Sacra (top image) and the fetal skeleton tableaux of Frederik Ruysch (bottom image). Copies of both books now reside in the Morbid Anatomy Museum Collection.

Light and Dust: A Reading of Johannes Jacob Scheuchzer's 'Homo ex Humo'
By Richard Barnett

Homo ex Humo: man from the dust. Scheuchzer’s intriguing trompe l’oie presents a picture within a picture, and a meditation on some of the oppositions at the heart of Christianity – eternity and time, grace and sin, flesh and word, light and dust.

Everything within the frame is graceful, in the most literal sense. Scheuchzer shows us the Garden of Eden on the evening of the sixth day of creation, as set out in the Book of Genesis 1:26-27 (King James Version):

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

A landscape which to modern eyes bears such clear traces of deep time and evolution served Scheuchzer and his readers well as a symbol of creation. The first dew is hardly dry on the ground, and even the dust, the abject and impermanent dust, is fresh and new. A gentle, sylvan river valley is busy with life: trees, flowers, fruits, grasses, and most of all animals, paired off two by two like the figures in a Victorian Noah’s Ark (though not in the Biblical version – see Genesis 7:1-3). Rabbits and horses, muskrats and storks have been made whole through union with a mate, and their lives are as complete as the paradise they inhabit.

Only one creature lacks a partner. Adam, the first man, seems startled to have been vaulted so suddenly into existence, and the curious position of his hands indicates an absence in his life, even in the moment of his creation. He appears to be trying to pray, but each hand cannot find its natural counterpart. If he is to praise his creator, if he is to live as contentedly the animals over which he has been granted dominion, he needs a companion. The voluptuous shapes of roots and tree-trunks beside him foreshadow what is on God’s mind, but the fulfilment of Adam’s lack will destroy the paradise we see.

Everything outside the frame is imperfect, and this imperfection is a consequence of the story unfolding within the frame. God creates Adam, then Eve, causing Adam to fall into a deep sleep and making the first woman from his rib (Genesis 1:18-25). Eve is tempted by the serpent and tempts Adam; both taste fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and fall from their original state of grace. Dissected specimens around the frame contrast the messy, fleshly reality of human reproduction, in sin and without grace, with the purity of God’s original creation in the picture – a shaft of light and a word.

On the right side of the frame is one of the strangest figures in Western art, borrowed from the Dutch anatomist Frederik Ruysch’s 'Tableau With Three Skeletons.' Ruysch combines two near-universal representations of birth and death – an infant and a skeleton – into a single figure expressing the sublime tragedy of creation and fall. The largest figure in the engraving, it seems to have stepped out of the picture and on to the frame, and this movement from perfection to imperfection may help to explain why it is drying its empty eye-sockets with a caul.

Inverting the natural order of things, this skeleton has died before it could be born, and it weeps for what is to come. If it is a child of Adam and Eve, is it Cain, the first murderer, or Abel, the first victim of murder? Leaving Eden, carrying the burden of original sin, it enacts the fall and banishment of its parents, taking the first reluctant steps on a long and hard road to salvation. No wonder it weeps, then; what can dry bones weep but dust?

The Morbid Anatomy Museum Update, or, "Wow! This is Really Happening!"

Morbid Anatomy is currently fundraising to support our transformation from a tiny, overstuffed Library to a new 3-floor, 4,200 square foot Morbid Anatomy Museum. The new Museum will have a giftshop featuring waxworks, taxidermy, and obscure books; a café (which will eventually serve cocktails!); a greatly expanded permanent collection; and temporary exhibitions devoted to topics such as The Art of Death, Frederik Ruysch, and, of course, 19th century anthropomorphic taxidermist Walter Potter.  It will also have a larger, dedicated event space with, thanks to a recent grant from Awesome Without Borders, live-streamed lectures for the enjoyment of our non-New York followers!

Things have been progressing very quickly the new space! Walls are being built, windows installed, the exterior is beginning to move towards its final look, and our new Morbid Anatomy library door--see above!--has arrived, and is ready for stenciling!

We have been raising money for this project primarily via Kickstarter; we have just passed the 50% mark for our $60,000 goal, but we still need your help! You support the Kickstarter by clicking here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1038582734/the-morbid-anatomy-museum.

To sweeten the deal, we have just added a new award: a hand-written poem and drawing "about a method of death of your choice" by Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer. Other awards include limited edition prints by artists Mark Ryden and Mark Dion; shooting antique guns with Mike Zohn of TV's "Oddities;" a collectable set piece from Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas; special Morbid Anatomy merch; and much, much more!

You can also support by attending our Morbid Anatomy Museum Kickstarter fundraising party this Friday, April 18. Your admission will not only be an excellent act of charity; it will also act as a Kickstarter contribution, getting you a Morbid Anatomy Tote Bag as well as a credit for two free tickets to the future Morbid Anatomy Museum. More on that here.

Thanks so much for your support! It means the world to us, and is invaluable in helping us make this bizarre and beautiful dream into a fully-realized reality. Whether you can help support this project or not, hope very much to see you in the new space!

Images, top to bottom:

1. Rendering of the Morbid Anatomy Museum by Architects Robert Kirkbride and Anthony Cohn
2. Morbid Anatomy Museum exterior
3. Grants and exhibitions coordinator Aaron Beebe with the new Morbid Anatomy Library door

Amsterdam Anatomy Weekend with Morbid Anatomy and The Incredible Vrolik Museum, May 10 and 11th

The Vrolik Museum--Amsterdam’s incredible anatomical museum, of which many photos above--and Brooklyn’s Morbid Anatomy Museum are proud to be teaming up to present Amsterdam Anatomy Weekend on May 10th and 11th, 2014 at the Museum Vrolik.

The weekend will feature a special program of lectures, workshops, demonstrations and exclusive museum and backstage tours showcasing The Vrolik's phenomenal and historical collection of osteology, teratology, natural history and curiosities. British Wax modeller and sculptor Eleanor Crook--artist in residence at Gordon’s Museum at Guy’s Hospital in London--will lead two workshops in which students will create---and leave with—their own dermatological wax model, or "moulage."

Other activities will include exclusive back stage tours of the Vrolik’s astouding storage rooms (2nd image down); lectures about amazing 17th century anatomical collections such as those of the “Artist of Death” Frederik Ruysch; demonstrations of wet specimen restoration and skeleton mounting and reconstruction; and special museum tours focusing on congenital malformations and historical highlights. There will also be a reception in the museum at which copies of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology will be available for sale and signing.

The Amsterdam Weekend of Anatomy is part of the Netherlands Month of Anatomy organized by the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden, the University Museum of Utrecht, and the Museum Vrolik in Amsterdam with the Morbid Anatomy Museum of Brooklyn, New York.

Full details below, and more here; hope very much to see you there!

The Amsterdam Weekend of Anatomy
The Vrolik--Amsterdam’s anatomical museum--and Brooklyn’s Morbid Anatomy Museum are proud to present a weekend devoted to anatomy over the weekend of May 10th and 11th, 2014. To celebrate, the Vrolik will be open to the public with a special program of lectures, workshops, demonstrations and exclusive museum and backstage tours showcasing its phenomenal and historical collection of osteology, teratology, natural history and curiosities.

Highlights include a workshop in wax modeling with sculptor Eleanor Crook in which students will create---and leave with—their own anatomical or dermatological wax model; demonstrations of liquid anatomical specimen restoration and skeleton mounting and reconstruction; a museum tour focusing on teratology, the specimens of congenital malformations in the Vrolik collection, and historical highlights of the collection; lectures about amazing 17th century anatomical collections such as those of “Artist of Death” Frederik Ruysch; and back stage tours of the Vrolik’s storage rooms.

Moulage/Wax Modelling Workshop
During the weekend of anatomy, British Wax modeller and sculptor Eleanor Crook will give two workshops. Crook has created anatomical and pathological waxes for several medical and science museums in Britain (e.g. the Science Museum and the Hunterian Museum), and is artist in residence at Gordon’s Museum at Guy’s Hospital, London. She has led many workshops in wax modelling, but this is her first in the Netherlands. For anyone familiar with the famous anatomical and pathological waxes in Vienna, Paris or Bologna, and who would like to experience the art of wax modelling for him or herself, this workshop offers a unique opportunity. All materials and tools are provided for this workshop, and each student will leave with their own beautiful wax model. Please note: Application for this workshop is separate from the rest of the program. See program and prices for separate charge.

Demonstration of Skeleton Mounting
In this demonstration, skeleton articulator Lucas Boer will put together a complete animal skeleton from its separate bones, explain the structure and function of these bones, and point out the differences in bone structure in the main groups of vertebrates. Visitors will also be invited to touch the animal bones and skulls.

Wet Specimen Restoration
In this demonstration, anatomical technician and specimen conservator Inge Dijkman will show the ways in which the Vrolik’s century-old collection of wet specimens are maintained and restored. Viewers will see the anatomical specimens removed from their jars, learn about the kind of liquids used for preservation, and witness all the steps needed for the care, upkeep and restoration of these incredible specimens.

Special Tours and Lectures
A series of special lectures and tours will focus on historical and medical aspects of some of the most famous and enigmatic Dutch anatomical collections, such as those of 17th century Frederik Ruysch, referred to as “Artist of Death” by his biographer Luuc Kooijmans. Experts in the history of the Vrolik collection and in the field of congenital malformations will give special tours showing the historical highlights of the collection, and the origin of the congenital malformations in the collection. There will also be exclusive backstage tours of the Museum Vrolik’s storage rooms and of the hospitals collection of dermatological wax models, neither of which are generally accessible to the public.

Program

Saturday May 10th
10:00 - 12:00     Lectures by Luuc Kooijmans (about the anatomist Frederik Ruysch); Frank Ijpma (about the surviving Ruysch specimens); Marieke Hendriksen (about beaded babies and decoration in anatomy) Joanna Ebenstein (about the persisting impact of Frederik Ruysch and about her new Morbid Anatomy Museum; and Eleanor Crook (about the art of wax modeling and its history).
12:00 - 13:00     Lunch
13:00 - 17:00     Workshops and demonstrations (wax models, mounting skeletons, liquid specimen restoration); historical highlights of Museum Vrolik-tour
From 17:00     Drinks in Museum Vrolik; sale and signing of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology

Sunday May 11th
10:00 - 12:00     Thematic city tour/ possibly visits to old anatomy tower in Waag on Nieuwmarkt
13:00 - 17:00     Workshops (Wax modeling) and museum tours (congenital malformations and historical highlights); backstage tour to wax models of dermatology and to the Museum Vrolik storage rooms.

Prices

• Workshop medical wax modelling (Eleanor Crook): 65 euro per workshop (4 hrs)
• Two day program (excl. workshop medical wax modelling): 25 euros
• Program Saturday 10th of may (excl. workshop medical wax modelling): 15 euros
• Program Sunday 11th of may (excl. workshop medical wax modelling): 15 euros
• Lunch on Saturday: 7 euros
• NB: lunch on Sunday is not provided due to the traveling between the city center and Academic Medical Center.

To sign up:
Please email museumvrolik@amc.uva.nl.  Please do not forget to select which part of the program you want to participate in.

Location
Academic Medical Center: Museum Vrolik (ground floor, building section J) and lecture room and dissection rooms of anatomy, second floor, building section L)

Month of Anatomy
The Amsterdam Weekend of Anatomy is part of the Netherlands Month of Anatomy organized by the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden, the University Museum of Utrecht, and the Museum Vrolik in Amsterdam with the Morbid Anatomy Museum of Brooklyn, New York. There will be three special weekends of lectures, tours and workshops concerning anatomy in May. Museum Vrolik is the first (10th and 11th of May); on the 24th and 25th of may a weekend of anatomy is organized by the University Museum of Utrecht and finally on 31st of may and the 1st of July Museum Boerhaave closes the month of anatomy. See for details about the activities of the other museums.

Photos of the museum overviews are by Paul Bomers; the other pictures are by Hans van den Bogaard, from the wonderful book Forces of Form.

Basel's Fasnacht Carnival and The Dance of Death: Guest Post by Jordan Marzuki

Morbid Anatomy reader Jordan Marzuki just sent in a fascinating guest post about Basel's Fasnacht Carnival and its relationship to death and pre-Christian rituals; he has also made a rather wonderful video of the parade which you can view above or by clicking here.

"Fasnacht" carnival takes its name from the start of the fasting season of lent. But this, the most important event in the life of Basel, Switzerland, is also fixed by Christian holy days. Carnival is always held six weeks before Easter, a week later than the Fas(t)nacht widely celebrated throughout neighboring German-speaking Catholic areas. The city of Basel is also associated with the "Totentanz" or dance of the death. That reminded people that whether rich or poor, and no matter one's station in life, everyone has to die.

Locals describe the event as the the three most beautiful days of the year. Up to 12,000 carnival participants march around the city in groups according to in their themed costumes and masks. Most of themes are associated with the topic of death – which is revering to the Basler Totentanz.

The Basler Fasnacht is now a part of the cultural identity of the city of Basel, and is often depicted as ancient tradition. Although the officially organized Carnival has only existed since 1920, it draws on traditions tracing back to pre-Christian times, and is connected with the spirits of the night, which are personified by masks. The masks represent a kind of struggle with the negative powers. With the end of winter, these spirits are driven away, the "expulsion of the winter," and the victory of spring.

On the Collection and Display of Human Remains: Guest Post by Evan Michelson, TV's "Oddities" and Morbid Anatomy Museum

The debate about the ethics of collecting and displaying human remains went mainstream recently with this CNN article about a man who stole over sixty human brains and other specimens from the Indiana Medical History Museum and tried to sell them on Ebay. Morbid Anatomy Museum's scholar in residence Evan Michelson is a researcher into the history of such collections, in contexts both sacred and secular. Following is her thoughtful and considered response to the CNN article, which went so far as to single out her show "Oddities" as "being illustrative of a growing trend for collecting curiosities, particularly anatomical specimens."

A CNN article published on January 3, 2014 chronicled the arrest of a young man who stole some early brain specimens from an Indiana medical museum to sell on Ebay. In the article the TV show "Oddities" was cited as being illustrative of a growing trend for collecting curiosities, particularly anatomical specimens. Said the executive director of the museum: "it's definitely bizarre. It's infuriating that they do not have respect for the human remains." This statement raises a few important points: I think everyone can agree that the illegal buying, selling and hoarding of exhumed or pilfered human remains is deeply disrespectful, repugnant, and indefensible on moral and legal grounds. No one can condone or defend such ghoulish goings-on. What is not being addressed, however, is an unavoidable truth: humans have always lived with, loved, and learned from our dead.

The urge to collect, display and venerate human remains is nothing new: it stretches back through the millennia, and plays a vital role in the history of science, medicine and many religions across cultures and around the globe.The widespread practice of ancestor worship originated at a time before recorded history (and is still practiced to this day). The gathering of bones is an irrepressible and primal human urge. Humans have long honored our dead with altars, elevating bones (particularly skulls) to a level of intimate spiritual totem. In many cultures the presence of human remains brings both comfort and continuity. From the Tibetan Kanling (a flute made from a human thigh bone) to the mummies of Palermo to the gorgeous calligraphy of 19th century French memorial hair work, to be in the material presence of the dead is to be one with generations past, to commune with the spirits, to ask favors, to remember, to harness power and to connect with the infinite.

In the service of science and medicine, human remains (such as those pilfered from the museum) have long been essential. It is only through contact with the dead that the secrets of the living have been revealed. The great anatomical insights of the classical physician and philosopher Galen (who primarily studied the anatomy of primates and pigs) are often overshadowed by the many glaring inaccuracies. These fatal mistakes ruled the study of anatomy for more than 1300 years, until anatomists like Andreas Vesalius delved into the human body proper to uncover a more accurate and comprehensive map of our internal architecture. In the 16th century depictions of these anatomical discoveries entered our collective human consciousness, and human dissections became works of high art and an essential part of the great humanist movement that flowed through the Renaissance and powered the scientific revolution. There followed the era of the beautiful corpse, when ceroplasts like Ercole Lelli and Clemente Susini created wax corpses and anatomical moulages of such surpassing beauty and accuracy that they inspired Popes, Emperors and commoners alike to see human anatomy as an important discipline worthy of respect and wonder. The human corpus had at last become a part of high and low common visual culture.

The preservation and display of actual human remains is a time-honored tradition in the great Positivist cities of the Western world, and most centers of learning had their own anatomical collections. These specimens of human anatomy were artfully prepared and displayed, and they illustrate the collective human journey from the realm of superstition through the refinements of natural philosophy and eventually to the rise of modern science. Exhibitions like "Body Worlds" still draw large crowds, eager to examine up-close what is so often kept hidden, and so often considered taboo. The sourcing of the "Body Worlds" cadavers is cause for justified legal and moral scrutiny, but their public display is an enlightening, time-honored tradition. For centuries, museums of anatomy have housed human specimens that are at once didactic, metaphorical and breathtakingly beautiful. These anatomized specimens can still be seen on exhibition in museums and in private collections, and they still provide unparalleled insight into our earthly selves. Anatomy is now digitized, and our bodies (down to a microscopic level) are available at the click of a button, but there is no substitute for the visceral presence of preserved anatomy; it is the best way to know ourselves.

Nowhere is the power of human remains more evident than in the evolution of the Christian religion and the rise of the Roman Catholic Church; there the collection and adoration of human body parts reached its artistic and spiritual pinnacle. The cult of the saints guaranteed that human remains would take center stage in the evolving political, economic and spiritual journey of the West. Religious pilgrims travelled great distances to be in the presence of the bones of the early martyrs, and the wealth thus generated drove an unprecedented competition for relics and a trade in human body parts (particularly in Western Europe) that determined the power centers of the modern world. We are all living in a map shaped by the preservation, display and possession of the dead.

The Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka is home to the tooth of the Buddha, one of the most celebrated relics on Earth. Once a year the relic is featured at a 10 day festival that includes fire dancers, musicians, street performers and scores of elephants. It draws an estimated crowd of one million participants, making it one of the largest Buddhist gatherings in the world. It is obvious that there is something irresistible about our anatomy, something that reaches us on a primal level. We fear and worship human remains, we shun death but we are irresistibly drawn to the dead. That young man who stole those brains broke the law and showed great disrespect in the commission of that crime. The instinct to collect, display and commune with the dead, however, is not as bizarre or disrespectful as some may think: it connects us with our earthly selves, and allows us to glimpse eternity.

Image sourced here.

Official Provisional Charter to Operate Morbid Anatomy Museum Devoted to "Liminal, Interdisciplinary, or Marginal" Artifacts!

The Morbid Anatomy Museum just received its official provisional charter to, in the words of the charter itself:

a) To operate a museum to promote, support, and present exhibitions of artifacts and artworks rarely featured in traditional museums due to their liminal, interdisciplinary, or marginal nature;in the words of the charter; b. To foster community awareness and appreciation of art, artifacts and ideas that do not conform to mainstream culture; c. To provide and maintain an archive relating to the topics presented, ideas explored, and craft represented by the featured exibitions; d. To promote and showcase the work of lesser-known local and international artists, makers and craftspeople whose work does not conform to mainstream art culture; e. To organize and host speaking engagements related to the topics explored by the exhibitions and the archive. 

Please consider donating to our Kickstarter campaign today to help make this the best museum it can be--for all of us!--at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1038582734/the-morbid-anatomy-museum.