Death in the Churches Malta: Guest Post by Eric Huang, Morbid Anatomy Foreign Corespondent

 

In the following guest post, Morbid Anatomy foreign corespondent Eric Huang reports on the graphic depictions of death in the churches of Malta! All photos are also his own!

Malta is a devoutly Catholic nation: a Mediterranean island between Sicily and North Africa. Saint John’s Co-Cathedral in the capital city, Valletta, is the crown jewel of Catholic Malta. Built in the 16th century by the Knights of Malta, a Catholic military order whose sole mission was to protect the Holy Lands from so-called ‘infidels’, the cathedral is a spectacular assembly of monuments exalting powerful clergymen.

Death’s heads abound - as do graphic representations of human skeletons, used as motifs in borders, frames, and accents. Most striking, however, are the grave markers of the Knights of Malta themselves. All are intricate marble-inlay mosaics with diverse depictions of Death alongside Catholic angels, crucifixes, and prayers. The Oratory also features two Caravaggio paintings: The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and a memento mori painting of Saint Jerome.

Malta is well worth a visit for the sacred art and body parts of saints scattered across various churches and museums, including the former residence of the Grand Inquisitor. The high baroque décor and Death’s head imagery evoke the horror and beauty of the Catholic church like nowhere else.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 30: Chuy, The Wolf Man: Documentary Screening with Director Eva Aridjis

We are so very excited to be hosting Eva Aridjis--director of Santa Muerte--for a screening of her new documentary film Chuy, The Wolf Man. This film traces the lives of Jesus 'Chuy' Aceves and his family, all of whom suffer from congenital hypertrichosis, or excessive hair on the face and body. It examines, in the words of the director, "their day-to-day lives and their struggle to find love, acceptance and employment."

The film will screen at the Morbid Anatomy Museum this Monday, November 30; you can find out more in this recent article in the BBC, and more about the event here. You can watch the trailer above.

Hope very much to see you there!

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

Image found here.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Corpses, Cadavers and Catalogues: The Mobilities of Dead Bodies and Body Parts, Past and Present, London, May 17 - 18, 2016

We have just been alerted to a new, multi-disciplinary conference devoted to "the dead body as a starting point for opening up wider debates on embodied knowledge, materiality and meaning-making."

Proposals (250-words max) can be sent to cccConference2016 [at] gmail.com by January 15th, 2016. Full details below; You can find out more here.

CFP: Corpses, Cadavers and Catalogues: The Mobilities of Dead Bodies and Body Parts, Past and Present

May 17th-18th May 2016

Venue: Barts Pathology Museum and the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, London

Organisers: Kristin Hussey (QMUL) and Sarah Morton (Keble College, Oxford)

Advisory Panel: Dr. Tim Brown (QMUL) and Dr. Beth Greenhough (Keble College, Oxford)

Deadline for Abstracts: January 15th, 2016

An interest in the dead body, and particularly its shifting meanings, mobility and agency can be seen in recent works of museology, geography and history of medicine (Hallam, 2007; Maddrell and Sidaway, 2010; Alberti, 2011; Young and Light, 2013). The biographies of human remains held by museums have been an area of considerable interest for medical museums dealing with their Victorian inheritance. The process by which pathological specimens or samples transform from intimate relics of life to scientific data has been explored by social historians of medicine, anthropologists and archaeologists (Boston et al., 2008; Fontein et al., 2010; Withycombe, 2015). There remains, however, little discussion across these disciplines as well as need to further explore the movement of the dead body, both in the past and present, in order to consider broader questions of power, imperialism and globalisation.

From the repatriation of contentious human remains to the controversial and fascinating body-world exhibits, dead body parts circulate in multiple ways through museum spaces past and present. This two-day interdisciplinary conference will bring together museum professionals and academics to foster a productive dialogue on the movement of the dead body and the social, ethical and political challenges it presents. In contrast to the breadth of current research on the movement of the living, the subject of the dead body will be used to bridge the divide between the work of museum professionals and academics to promote the museum as a site for research, and develop new connections and networks.

Through this conference, we hope to use the dead body as a starting point for opening up wider debates on embodied knowledge, materiality and meaning-making, the role of the body in structures of inequality, and the challenges of colonial remains in a postcolonial world. We hope these two days will bring together diverse speakers from across disciplines to consider how bodies and body parts have informed their research and professional practice. We welcome papers from PhD students, early career researchers and heritage professionals, as well as works in progress.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Meanings of different body parts in historical and temporal contexts
• The curation, display, and provenance of medical museum specimens
• The materialities of colonialism and politics of repatriation
• Human remains and the practice of medical history
• Provenance and interpretation of morbid and pathological specimens
• Corpse geographies, body biographies and the creation of embodied knowledge
• Ethics of human remains research and display

To submit a paper proposal, please send an email with a 250-word abstract and a short (100 word) biography to cccConference2016 [at] gmail.com by January 15th 2016. Successful applicants will be contacted by early February 2015 and be expected to register by 1 March 2016 for the conference held 17-18 May.

For further information or informal questions about possible topics, please contact the conference organisers via ccConference2016 [at] gmail.com

Corpses, Cadavers and Catalogues is a collaboration between Queen Mary University of London, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, Barts Pathology Museum, and is funded by the Wellcome Trust Small Grants programme.

Images: (TOP) The Hunterian Museum. (BOTTOM) Barts Pathology Museum

Anatomy in Black: A New Anatomical Atlas in Black and Gold by Artist and Anatomist Emily Evans

Morbid Anatomy Artist and Anatomist in residence Emily Evans has just published a gorgeous and eminently covetable new anatomical atlas entitled Anatomy in Black. With over 250 illustrations custom created by Evans and rendered entirely in black and gold, this book will, in the words of its maker, lead "you stylishly through the human body from head to toe. This book is a perfect companion for those interested in anatomy, regardless of their previous knowledge of the subject matter."

The Morbid Anatomy Museum will be hosting a talk by Evans, and party to celebrate the release of the book this Wednesday, November 11th; you can find out more, and get tickets, by clicking here; you can also preorder a copy of the book by clicking here.

Morbid Anatomy asked Evans--who in addition to her illustration acts as Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy at Cambridge University, where she teaches dissection and anatomy--to share a bit about the book, and her motivation in making it; below is her response, in the form of a guest post:

I wanted to create a sophisticated and luxurious book of anatomy and the perfect object to have on your coffee table to dip into or spark conversations when guests are over for cocktails. A sexy anatomy book if you like!

I’ve spent years illustrating some of the most high profile medical textbooks of anatomy, which need to adhere to the ‘educational’ aesthetic. Although this makes them clear for learning, it’s not necessarily a book someone would want on display. This is particularly apt if someone hasn’t studied anatomy, they may feel the standard anatomy books, though having beautiful images, are completely inaccessible for someone who is merely a voyeur of anatomy.

Creating the book entirely in decadent gold and black was key to reproducing anatomical imagery in a contemporary format that had not been done before. This allows the images to be framed in a way that they appear quite abstract, and can be appreciated for their beauty, shape and design without the preconceptions of traditional anatomical imagery that we’re used to (the familiar coloured anatomical images that can trigger many people to feel squeamish or back at school).

It was crucial to me that the illustrative content of the book was a reflection of the same level that anatomy students need to know with nothing omitted or dampened for the lay audience. My experience teaching anatomy and human dissection for the last 14 years has aided me in including the relevant information in a clear and concise manner. The ultimate aim is that it is a book that showcases the beauty of human anatomy in a way that is of interest to both professionals and spectators alike.

Puebla, Mexico: Churches, Swooning Saints, Morbido Fest, Santa Muerte, Souls in Purgatory and Day of the Dead

Part of the Morbid Anatomy team has just returned from our trip to Puebla, Mexico, where we attended the fabulous and revelatory Morbidofest. Special congratulations to filmmaker in residence Ronni Thomas, whose short film on Victorian anthropomorphic taxidermist Walter Potter, The Man who Married Kittens, won an award there!

Photos above, of some of what we saw, including churches, souls in purgatory, paintings of dead nuns, reliquary effigies, Santa Muerte shrines and sanctuaries, and day of the dead celebrations. You can see many more photos--all by our creative director Joanna Ebenstein--here, here, here, here and here.