Morbid Anatomy London Based Events This May: Morbid Anatomy Salon and One Day Anatomical Venus Symposium

The Morbid Anatomy Salon at London's Wellcome Collection is sadly now fully booked; apologies it sold out so fast! The good news is the event will be filmed and you'll be available to watch online soon after the live event. Stay tuned for more.

Those who were unable to get tickets for this event might be interested in our other upcoming event in London, a one day symposium in honor of our new book on The Anatomical Venus on May 15th. It features a few of the same speakers, such as Chiara Ambrosio, Ross MacFarlane, and Morbid Anatomy founder and museum creative director Joanna Ebenstein. Other presenters include Strange Attractor's Mark Pilkington, wax sculptor and Morbid Anatomist at Large Eleanor Crook, Anatomist in residence Emily Evans, historian of medicine James Kennaway, John Troyer of the Centre for Death and Society, magic lanternist Mervyn Heard, Stephen Coates of The Real Tuesday Weld, and much more.

Since their creation, The Anatomical Venus--an18th century life-sized wax woman created to teach a general public about anatomy--have seduced, intrigued and amazed; this symposium will also attempt to explore the ways in which, to the contemporary eye, they also confound, flickering on the edges of medicine and magic, votive and vernacular, fetish and fine art.

Full line up follows; ticket link should be added by Monday!

THE ANATOMICAL VENUS, MORBID ANATOMIES AND STRANGE ATTRACTORS: A ONE DAY SYMPOSIUM TO MARK THE LAUNCH OF THE ENW BOOK "THE ANATOMICAL VENUS"
TIME: 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM
PRICE: £13/ £7 STUDENTS
OFFSITE AT London's Horse Hospital
TICKETS LINK ADDED SOON!

Please join Morbid Anatomy and Strange Attractor as we celebrate the release of the new book “The Anatomical Venus” (published by Thames and Hudson in the UK and DAP in the US), which explores the strange and fascinating history of seductive female anatomical wax models, which peaked in fashion in the 19th century. Filled with never before published images from around the world, and documented in intricate detail, the book is the result of Morbid Anatomy founder Joanna Ebenstein’s global, ten-year photographic quest. Since their creation, these wax women have seduced, intrigued and amazed; this symposium will also attempt to explore the ways in which, to the contemporary eye, they also confound, flickering on the edges of medicine and magic, votive and vernacular, fetish and fine art.

SCHEDULE
10:00 AM: Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy, Author of “The Anatomical Venus: “An Enlightenment-era St Teresa Ravished by Communion with the Invisible Forces of Science: A Brief Introduction to The Anatomical Venus

10:15: Keynote: Eleanor Crook, Wax Sculptor: The Deliquescent Self: Wax, Anatomies and the Fear of Melting

10:45-12:45: Panel One: Faith, Magic, Theology & The Body: Moderated by Ross MacFarlane, Wellcome Collection

• Chiara Ambrosio, Filmmaker: My Grandfather the Spirit Doctor & Me: Listening to Bones and the Voices in the Ether
• Emily Evans, Artist and Anatomist: The Use of Human Hair in Art and the Divine
• William Maclehose, Historian of Religion and Medicine, UCL: Sleeping with the Divine: Incubation and Dream Healing in the Premodern World
• Ross MacFarlane, Research Engagement Office, Wellcome Library: An Intimate Collection? Tracing Emotions in Edward Lovett’s Amulets and Charms
• James Kennaway, Historian of Medicine, Newcastle: The Role of Music in Mesmerism

12:45-1:45: Lunch Break

1:45-3:45: Panel 2: Natural and Supernatural: Moderated by Mark Pilkington, Strange Attractor Press

• Mark Pilkington, Strange Attractor Press: Echoes of Afterlife: Comparing Textual and Medical Models of Post-Mortem Existence
• Christopher Josiffe, Cataloguer at Senate House Library and Writer: Gef! The Strange Tale of An Extra Special Talking Mongoose
• Jonathan Allen. Artist, Writer and Educator: The Tarot of Austin Osman Spare
• Kirsten Norrie, Artist, Writer, Performer: Second Sight in Highland Tradition

3:45-5:00: Panel 3: Wax: Moderated by Eleanor Crook, Wax Sculptor

• Eleanor Crook: Talk and Wax Modeling Demonstration
• Nathalie Latour, Wax Conservator, Paris: André Pierre Pinson, the Wax Modeler of the French Revolution

5:00 – 7:00 Panel 4: Morbid Amusements: Moderated by John Troyer, Centre for Death and Society

• John Troyer, Director of the Centre for Death and Society, Bath: That’s Not Funny!: Morbidly Amusing Necrophilia Law
• Lili Sarnyai, University of London, Graduate Student: Sleeping Beauties
• Professor Mervyn Heard, performer, scholar and author of Phantasmagoria: The Secret Life of the Magic Lantern: Phantasmagoria: Ghost-raising for Fun and Profit in the 18th Century
• Steven Coates, Musician (The Real Tuesday Weld) and Author: Xray Audio: Soviet Music on the Bone

Image: Anatomical Venuses created by the workshop at La Specola, Florence, Josephinum Museum, Vienna, Austria. Photo by Joanna Ebenstein

Public Dissections, Frederik Ruysch and the Theatrum Anatomicum: Touring the Waag at Amsterdam Anatomy Weekend

As part of our recent Amsterdam Anatomy Weekend, The Vrolik Museum's Lisa Kuiper gave a fascinating tour of The Waag (above), which is not only the oldest building in Amsterdam (dating back to 1488) but also housed the anatomical theatre where public dissections were performed under the hand of Frederik Ruysch and others from 1691 until the early 19th century. The content of the following post is primarily sourced from Lisa's excellent tour.

The Waag, Kuiper explained, began its life as a city gate; called St Anthony’s Port, it was locked each evening at 10 pm. It went on to become a weighing house (Waag in Dutch) where goods would be weighed before entering the city to evaluate the appropriate taxes before they went to market. From 1588 on, it also served as the home to the city's guilds, including that of the Surgeons; they were given the top space, a testament to thier importance. The Surgeons' Guild built a "Theatrum Anatomicum," or Anatomical Theatre, which could be entered through this door:



Here, they conducted dissections, usually on the bodies of executed criminals; in this way their location was convenient, because criminals were also executed here, as seen in this artwork from 1812:

Guillotine on the Nieuwmarkt, Gerrit Lamberts , 1812.
Via Amsterdam Municipal Archives.

In 1690, neighbors of the Waag sent a letter to the Surgeon's Guild, requesting that the dissections be opened to the curious public; they did so the following year, under the persuasion of famed embalmer, anatomist and so called "artist of death" Frederik Ruysch who also conducted the first dissections. Below you can see him dissecting a child attached to the placenta; more on the man and his work below.

Jan van Neck, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Frederick Ruysch, 1683.
Amsterdams Historisch Museum

Dissections could take as long as seven days to complete, with admission prices varying based on proximity to the body and the day you wished to attend, with earlier dates being more expensive and smelling less vile. The Waag also functioned--as did the Leiden anatomical theatre--as sort of museum, open on Christmas and special fair and market days. Here, one could see a cat with four hind legs, a skeleton of a child playing violin along with other skeletons, the preserved skins of dissected criminals, a taxidermied lion and lioness, and more. At least some of the preparations were made by Frederik Ruysch himself.

Until the 1820's, as explained in a lecture by Vrolik Director Laurens de Rooy, anatomists would dress skeletons and put them in the windows during the the annual market fair, presumably to advertise the contents of the museum; he kindly sent me a copy of the image so I could include it here:

Illustration from Marja Keyser's Komt dat zien!
De Amsterdamse kermis in de 19e eeuw
(‘Come and see! The Amsterdam fair in the 19th century)
Courtesy of Laurens de Rooy

Rembrandt's famous 1632 painting "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp" depicts a dissection which took place at The Waag's Theatrum Anatomicum:

Rembrandt, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, 1632

As with all guild portraits, each doctor would have paid for their own portrait. Dr Tulp is one of very many anatomy guild paintings; we also were lucky enough to see a few more at the Amsterdam Hermitage as part of the exhibition Portrait Gallery of the Golden Age:

Rembrandt, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Jan Deyman, 1656;
fragment; the rest destroyed in a fire.

Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy, The Osteology Lesson of
Dr Sebastiaen Egbertsz, 1619.

Adriaen Backer, Anatomy lesson of Frederik Ruysch, 1670
Amsterdam Museum

The exhibit also housed an image of the Theatrum Anatomicum in the Waag from the 18th century seemingly rendered in gold and silver:

The Theatrum Anatomicum in the Waag, Jonas Zeuner
after Adolf van der Laan, Second half of 18th Century

And a memento mori themed plaque originally on display at an orphanage; it was made during a year when the city of Amsterdam was wracked by plague, with 10% of the population decimated and the orphanages overrun.

Albert Jansz Vinckenbrinck (1604-1664), Death, 1663

Wealthy surgeons might opt for inclusion in a guild portrait, but another and less expensive way surgeons could be immortalized would be to have their family crest painted on the ceiling of the Waag's Theatrum Anatomicum; they can still be seen today




Ruysch's crest is in the very center, reflecting his fame and his importance to the space.

Around the building, in gold letters, reads a memento-mori themed exhortation in Old Dutch. said to have been written by Ruysch himself:

Here is what is says, in a impromptu translation by The Waag's Helen Fermante:

Those who have done bad in life
Will be of use after our death
Health has been taken back from death itself
The dead body gives to the pupil even though its dumb and its tongue already dead, advises you not to do as criminals
Head, finger, kidney, tongue, head, lung, brain, bones, and hands
Give you the living a warning example
So you hear and take to heart
that when you go along the different paths of life
you'll be convened that even in the small details God is still hidden there

In this way, one could see the Theatrum Anatomicum as an extension of the aims of Ruysch's home cabinet, where he displayed his unique preparations that were equal part science and memento mori, such as the allegorically themed fetal skeleton tableau in the illustration below. The skeleton at the bottom is holding a mayfly which, as it only lives a single day, is a symbol of mortality. The top skeleton plays a violin atop a mountain of gall and bladder stones, surrounded by foliage crafted from other preserved human remains. You can find out more about the remarkable Frederik Ruysch--who we call our patron saint--here.

To see more photos from our Amsterdam Anatomy Weekend, click here. The next iteration will take place on April 21-23 2007. If you sign our mailing list by clicking here, you will be alerted when the event is announced.

Oskar Kokoschka's Effigy of Alma Mahler, 1919

In 1919, artist Oskar Kokoschka commissioned doll maker Hermione Moos to create a life-sized effigy of his former lover Alma Mahler, widow of composer Gustav Mahler and one of the most pursued and celebrated women in Vienna. Despite being unhappy with the results. he painted and photographed the doll many times, and took it out as his companion to the theater and restaurants. Eventually, he ceremonially doused it in red wine and beheaded at a party.

Learn more this--and much more!--in the new Morbid Anatomy Thames and Hudson / Artbook / D.A.P. book "The Anatomical Venus," out at the end of May!

More can be found here. It can be pre-ordered in the USA here, and here for the rest of the world. 

Kapuziner Crypt (Kapuzinergruft): Housing the Bodies of the Habsburg Royal Family, Vienna, Austria

Kapuziner Crypt (Kapuzinergruft), where the bodies of the Habsburg royal family are stored. — in Vienna, Austria. From a visit yesterday with dear friend and wax sculptor Eleanor Crook.

Anatomical Venuses and Pathological Moulages at This Weekend's Vienna Anatomy Weekend!

This weekend in Vienna, Morbid Anatomy is joining forces with two astounding Viennese medical museums--The Josephinum and The Narrenturm--for our first ever Vienna Anatomy Weekend!

The Josephinum--founded in 1785--houses an incredible collection of 18th century anatomical waxes crafted by the famed la Specola workshop in Florence, including its own dissectable Anatomical Venus, seen above with one of our lecturers, sculptor and ceroplast Eleanor Crook. The Narrenturm (bottom image) houses one of the largest and most stunning collections of pathological waxes and wet specimens I have ever personally seen in an atmospheric 18th century madhouse.

I suggest spending Saturday at the Narrenturm and Sunday at the Josephinum to be sure to see all. Below is my suggested full schedule; you can email pas@nhm-wien.ac.at to register for all Narrenturm events and sammlungen@meduniwien.ac.at for all Josephinum events. Fee can be paid at the Museums on the day of; please bring cash. Also, the museums are literally a 5 minute walk from one another, which is not clear from the addresses.

Also, we are so excited that our opening party will now take place at The Narrenturm on Friday at 5pm!

Very much looking forward to seeing you there!

SUGGESTED MORBID ANATOMY WEEKEND SCHEDULE

FRIDAY APRIL 21
5pm-Opening party at The Narrenturm (Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna). Registration via Email: pas@nhm-wien.ac.at.

SATURDAY APRIL 22
The Narrenturm (Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna)
Registration via Email: pas@nhm-wien.ac.at

10 - 11:30 : Lectures (8€)
• Introductory remarks by Morbid Anatomy Museum co-founders Joanna Ebenstein and Tracy Hurley Martin
• Eduard Winter on Occult Narrenturm
• Laurens de Rooy on Amsterdam’s Vrolik Museum
• Eleanor Cook: Anatomy and Expressionism

Tours (10€ each tour; please specify which you you would like to do)
Times: 1, 3 and 5
• Tour 1: Architectural tour with veterinary, electro-pathology and gynecology focus
• Tour 2: copious overview of the collection with emphasis on moulages (painted wax casts)
• Tour 3: backstage tour in areas not open to general public, such as the administrative floor, the attic, the depot and the preparation

SUNDAY APRIL 23
The Josephinum (Währinger Straße 25, 1090 Vienna)
10:30 AM: Lectures in guided tours (30€ for all tours and lectures)
Registration via Email: sammlungen@meduniwien.ac.at

Lectures by Christiane Druml, Director of the Josephinum
• History of the Josephinum
• Anatomic wax models and conservation

12:00: Guided Tours
Includes all three tours:
• 18th Century Anatomical wax models (30 minutes)
• Temporary exhibition „de oculis“ (30 minutes)
• Walking tour “Old general hospital Vienna” (45 minutes)

See full schedule of events here.

Count Carl Von Cosel - Beyond Death: Guest Post by Filmmaker in Residence Ronni Thomas

People like Von Cosel live so far outside our materialist world that it’s hard for them to even perceive ’normal'. They challenge reality without effort, inhabiting in a world of their own design. Which is why I am driven to create a documentary about this strange, beautiful life.
--Ronni Thomas, Morbid Anatomy Filmmaker in Residence

Morbid Anatomy's filmmaker in residence Ronni Thomas is hard at work on a new feature length film detailing the story of self-styled Count Carl von Cosel (aka Carl von Cosel), a man best remembered today for trying to preserve the body of his beloved.

Ronni is trying currently raising funds via Kickstarter for this ambitious and worthy new project. More on the story of Cosel in Thomas' guest post below, and in the video above. Please consider supporting this amazing fever dream of a film if you can! You can do so by clicking here.

Count Carl Von Cosel - Beyond DeathIts very easy to take the story of Carl von Cosel and strip it down to the extremes: He became obsessed with a patient of his, she died, he dug her up, he slept with her for 7 years... And most accounts of his story are whittled down to just that in a sense... A mad, sad necrophile who went to extreme lengths to have the object of his desire. For the internet age, thats about as much as anyone wants to know before moving on to the next post.

The mad doctor sitting at the pipe organ he traveled the world with

But for me, "Slept with a corpse for 7 years", seemed to beg more information. My latest, highly ambitious film project, No Place For The Living,, aims to supply those interested with that information. For the past 2 years, I've made it my own personal obsession to make some sense of the Cosel story. I've devoured the sparse amounts of literature on the subject and have endured the several cheesy amber tinted dramatic recreations for television. But mostly, I am basing my story on his own personal testimony... His Journal. Of all the writings, it speaks the loudest. It fills in alot of whats MISSING from the story: the 'why'.

The cover of Cosel's journal, published by Fantastic Adventures

 Now, of course I'm glossing over many details myself so let me back up a bit. If you are unfamiliar with the Cosel story, here is generally what you'll find. In 1930s Key West, Florida, a German immigrant who would dub himself 'Count' Carl von Cosel took work as a Radiologist at the Maritime Hospital. This was during the height of the tuberculosis epidemic and patients were dropping by the dozens. One of these patients was a 20 year old Cuban immigrant named Elena Hoyos. Cosel, who was 54, became instantly obsessed with the girl. In his journal, he claims to have been introduced to her spirit several times in his life and she was his 'spirit bride'. I should note that he had a very living wife and 2 daughters living on mainland Florida in Zephyrhills.

Of course Elena dies despite the Count using what he considered 'advanced technological' efforts to save her (really he was just shooting her up with radiation). He takes it upon himself to have her buried. This is odd for her family, but they agree due to their own financial situation. They also agree to let the mad Count 'rent' Elena's bedroom. Cosel moves in immediately. Almost a year passes when he realizes that heavy rains might damage the body. So, he manages to have the body dug up and placed in a mausoleum that he built with his own hands. He visits the crypt daily and converses with the dead girl. She begins to feel lonely (in his own testimony) and requests for him to take her home.... which he does. They move into a home on the beach and for 7 years they remain together until Elena's sister demands to know if rumors of her sister being not at all in the grave are true.

Elena Hoyos - Before / After

Its shocking for sure. But his journal tells a much madder tale, rife with romance and gothic visions. He plays the part of a Hollywood Mad Scientist using Alchemy, Medicine and Mysticism to bring the body of Elena back to life... an achievement he declares to have been a success. He makes references to Eastern methods of curing 'death' and disease. He seems to be confused and torn between spirituality and science... he's a desperate man, playing all sides to bring his Frankenstein Bride back from the dead.

So much historical effort has been put in to focus on his alleged sexual encounter with the corpse that little has ever been done to really scratch the surface of this entirely insane story. Its got ghostly visitations, a statue that springs to life in an Italian cemetery, a hand-built 'airship' that resembles more a George Melies prop than anything that could ever take flight (it had massive pontoon wheels and no wings) and there's even a big explosion toward the end. Its a cinematic dream. A Gothic Romance. So I ask to go PAST the alleged necrophilia, and give his story a chance. Take a Fortean approach to his case, suspend disbelief and enter the astonishing and uncanny mind of Count Carl von Cosel...

The Contessa Elena Airship which doubled as a
makeshift laboratory for Elena

Please consider supporting this project here on Kickstarter. Thanks a ton!!

Morbid Anatomy Vienna Anatomy Weekend at the Narrenturm Pathological Museum and the Josephinum Museum, April 22 – April 24th

The Morbid Anatomy Vienna Anatomy Weekend schedule has been finalized, with special tours, backstage access and lectures at two incredible medical museums, the Narrenturm, with its spectacular pathology collection in the 18th century "Fools Tower," and the Josephinum with its exquisite Anatomical Venuses and 18th century waxes!

Full schedule follows. Hope very much to see you there!

Morbid Anatomy Vienna Anatomy Weekend at the Narrenturm Pathological Museum and the Josephinum Museum

Dates: Friday, April 22 – Sunday, April 24h
Location: Narrenturm Pathological Museum and the Josephinum Museum, Vienna

Friday April 22:

5PM: Opening party at the Vienna Museum of Natural History. Free admission, cash bar. Must RSVP to Email pas@nhm-wien.ac.at

NARRENTURM PATHOLOGICAL MUSEUM PROGRAM
Registration via Email: pas@nhm-wien.ac.at
10€ per guided tour, 8€ for the lectures
Please specify name and time of desired tour

Saturday April 23

10 - 11:30 : Lectures:
• Introductory remarks by Morbid Anatomy Museum co-founders Joanna Ebenstein and Tracy Hurley Martin
• Eduard Winter on Occult Narrenturm
• Laurens de Rooy on Amsterdam’s Vrolik Museum
• Eleanor Cook: Anatomy and Expressionism

11:30 – 1pm lunch break

1pm first round of guided tours
3pm second round of guided tours
5pm third round of guided tours
7pm end

Sunday April 24

10 - 12 : first round of guided tours
12 – 1pm lunch break
1pm second round of guided tours
3pm third round of guided tours
5pm fourth round of guided tours
7pm end

TOUR OPTIONS

Tour 1: Architectural tour with veterinary, electro-pathology and gynecology focus
Tour 2: copious overview of the collection with emphasis on moulages (painted wax casts)
Tour 3: backstage tour in areas not open to general public, such as the administrative floor, the attic, the depot and the preparation

10€ each, please specify time and name of tour when making reservations.

JOSEPHINUM PROGRAM
Registration required via E-Mail: sammlungen@meduniwien.ac.at

Saturday April 23 & Sunday April 24
Guided tour package // price 17€ (cash only) for three tours
maximum of participants 80

Starting times: 10:00 am and 2:30 pm
• Anatomic wax models (30 minutes)
• Temporary exhibition „de oculis“ (30 minutes)
• Walking tour “Old general hospital Vienna” (45 minutes)

Sunday, 24rd April
Lecture and guided tour package // price 30€ (cash only)
maximum of participants 80
Lectures (20 minutes each)
Starting time: 10:30 am

Christiane Druml, Director of the Josephinum
• History of the Josephinum
• Anatomic wax models & conservation

Guided tours
Starting time: 12:00
• Anatomic wax models (30 minutes)
• Temporary exhibition „de oculis“ (30 minutes)
• Walking tour “Old general hospital Vienna ” (45 minutes)

OTHER SUGGESTIONS OF PLACES TO VISIT IN VIENNA

Dentistry museum
Natural history museum
Crime museum
Aqua terra zoo
Sigmund Freud museum
Mozarthaus Vienna
Leopold museum
Funeral Museum
Catacombs of St Stephens Cathedral
Central Cemetery

Dissectable Anatomical Wax Venus from the Workshop of Rudolf Pohl, Münchner Stadtmuseum, 1930s

One thinks of Anatomical Venuses as an 18th and 19th century phenomenon, but here is material proof that they continued to be made at least until as the early 1930s. This dissectible life-sized wax Anatomical Venus was created around 1930 by the wax modeling workshop of Rudolf Pohl and exhibited at a fairground museum as part of Oktoberfest 1933 and 1934. You can see her today at the fabulous Münchner Stadtmuseum.

Learn more in new Thames and Hudson / Artbook / D.A.P. book The Anatomical Venus, out soon! More can be found here.

Photos by Joanna Ebenstein.

Private Tour and Party at Green-Wood Cemetery! Home Tour of Ryan Matthew Cohn of TV's Oddities Home Collection! Be King and Queen of the Krampus Party!

Photo by Axel Dupeux

This year, we are opening up the Morbid Anatomy Museum Gala Silent Auction to all of those who are unable to attend. All monies earned will go directly towards our programming.

The auction will end at 10pm (EDT) on April 11th. We will then contact the highest bidders to give them the chance to bid by proxy for the Gala on April 12th.

Below is a full list of clickable auction items. You can also see all of them here.

• Private VIP Tour of The Bronx Zoo for 6 (Value: $1200.00)  
• Home Museum Tour with Ryan Matthew Cohn of TV's ODDITIES (Value: $500.00)
• Taxidermy Piece/Private Mouse Taxidermy Class for 2 (Value: $500.00)     
• Private Party for 10 at the Morbid Anatomy Museum (Value: $1500.00)     
• Private Green-Wood Cemetery Tour and Wine in the Catacombs for 20 (Value: $400.00) 
• Atlas Obscura Party Package for 2 including tickets to Into the Veil event at Green-Wood Cemetery (Value: $350.00)     
• Be King and Queen of The 2016 Morbid Anatomy Krampus Party (Retail: $250.00)
• Print from Atlas of Human Anatomy, 1877 (Value: $300.00)
• Analog Filmmaking Experience: Hand-Processed Black & White 16mm Film (Value: $350.00)
• Original Edgar Allan Poe Print from The Raven, Illustration by Gustave Dore (Value: $100.00)     
• Private Charleston or Swing Lessons (Value: $125.00)     
• One Group Surfing Lesson (Value: $105)
  
  

New Morbid Anatomy Book on the Uncanny Allure of the Anatomical Venus!

The strangest, without a doubt, is an 18th century wax figure known as the "Anatomical Venus": a comely young woman, life-sized and nude, lying prostrate on a pink silk cushion in what looks to be a state of sensual rapture, her torso flayed and all her glistening organs -- including a womb containing a tiny fetus -- revealed. Her long brown hair is real, her eyes are open and unfocused, and the cloth of her pillow is crumpled -- she might as well be writhing. The product of one sculptor's clearly intimate experience with cadavers, she suggests an Enlightenment-era St. Teresa ravished by communion with the invisible forces of science.
--"Exposing classical art's true colors: A Getty Villa exhibit adds brilliant hues to works once thought to be unadorned." Holly Myers for the Los Angeles Times, 2008

Morbid Anatomy began in 2007 as a research tool for an exhibition called Anatomical Theatre, which explored the uncanny allure of historical wax medical models. Of all those models, by far the most seductive and fascinating is life-sized, ecstatically posed Anatomical Venus.

Since that time, the Anatomical Venus has served as both a guide and a muse for the entire Morbid Anatomy project, inspiring research and trips around the world; exhibitions including Exquisite Bodies at the Wellcome Collection; a variety of lectures and articles; and, as of May 24th, a brand new, hardcover, gorgeously designed and lavishly illustrated (see sample page spreads above) 224 page book entitled The Anatomical Venus, published by Thames and Hudson in the UK (top image) and by DAP (second image) in the USA.

The book uses The Anatomical Venus as a point of departure to explore the many paths that lead from her; it situates her within her "historical and cultural context in order to reveal the shifting attitudes toward death and the body that today render such spectacles strange. It reflects on connections between death and wax, the tradition of life-sized simulacra and preserved beautiful women, the phenomenon of women in glass boxes in fairground displays, and ideas of the ecstatic, the sublime and the uncanny."

The full official ad copy for the book follows; stay tuned for information on parties and symposia to celebrate its release taking place in both New York City and London! And, although the book will not be officially released until mid-May, it can be pre-ordered in the USA here, and here for the rest of the world.

Of all the artifacts from the history of medicine, the Anatomical Venus—with its heady mixture of beauty, eroticism and death—is the most seductive. These life-sized dissectible wax women reclining on moth-eaten velvet cushions—with glass eyes, strings of pearls, and golden tiaras crowning their real human hair—were created in eighteenth-century Florence as the centerpiece of the first truly public science museum. Conceived as a means to teach human anatomy, the Venus also tacitly communicated the relationship between the human body and a divinely created cosmos; between art and science, nature and mankind. Today, she both intrigues and confounds, troubling our neat categorical divides between life and death, body and soul, effigy and pedagogy, entertainment and education, kitsch and art.

The first book of its kind, The Anatomical Venus, by Morbid Anatomy founder and Morbid Anatomy Museum co-founder and director Joanna Ebenstein, features over 250 images—many never before published—gathered by its author from around the world. Its extensively researched text explores the Anatomical Venus within her historical and cultural context in order to reveal the shifting attitudes toward death and the body that today render such spectacles strange. It reflects on connections between death and wax, the tradition of life-sized simulacra and preserved beautiful women, the phenomenon of women in glass boxes in fairground displays, and ideas of the ecstatic, the sublime and the uncanny. 

Mater Dolorosa (Our Lady of Sorrows), Italian School, Probably 16th Century

Painting of the Mater Dolorosa (Our Lady of Sorrows), Italian School, Probably 16th Century. Via Bukowski's Auction House.

From Wikipedia:

The Seven Sorrows of Mary are a popular Roman Catholic devotion. In common religious Catholic imagery, the Blessed Virgin Mary is portrayed in a sorrowful and lacrimating affect, with seven daggers piercing her heart, often bleeding. Devotional prayers that consist of meditation began to elaborate on her Seven Sorrows based on the prophecy of Simeon... [Those seven sorrows are]:

The Prophecy of Saint Simeon. (Luke 2:34–35)
The Escape and Flight into Egypt. (Matthew 2:13)
The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:43–45)
The Meeting of Mary and Jesus on the Via Dolorosa.
The Crucifixion of Jesus on Mount Calvary. (John 19:25)
The Piercing of the Side of Jesus, and His Descent from the Cross. (Matthew 27:57–59)
The Burial of Jesus by Joseph of Arimathea. (John 19:40–42)

Philippe Curtius' Sleeping Beauty: Breathing 1920s Waxwork Cast from original 1767 Mold; From the Morbid Anatomy Book "The Anatomical Venus"

The Sleeping Beauty, a waxwork whose breast rises and falls ever so slightly, as seen in the video above.

The model pictured here is a 1925 replica cast from his original mold after the original 1767 wax model destroyed in a fire and crafted by Philippe Curtius. Curtius was the uncle (or possibly the illegitimate father) of the Anne-Marie Grosholtz, who would rise to fame as a wax modeller in her own right under her married name Madame Tussaud. 

This piece can still be seen, breathing gently, at Madame Tussaud's in London. In her book Phantasmagoria, Scholar Marina Warner says of this piece: "The illusion of permanent sleep is invoked to deny the reality of death... The Sleeping Beauty functions as anti-memento mori....she promises immortality as the suspension of time."

Find out more in the new Morbid Anatomy book The Anatomical Venus, published by DAP in the US and Thames and Hudson in the rest of the world. You can find out more here.

Mysterious 1933 Autopsy Film: Michael Sappol from the National Library of Medicine Collection

Michael Sappol--historian at the National Library of Medicine, author of A Traffic of Dead Bodies, and curator of Dream Anatomy--just shared news of a mysterious film in his Library's collection. This 1933 film contains, in the Library's own words, "an autopsy, perhaps the first ever performed before a motion picture camera. On screen, a bespectacled man in a white coat happily cuts open an unidentified dead man, chatting all the while with students and colleagues..."

You can watch the film (probably NSFW) above. The full description of the film follows; you can also read a post about it on the Circulating Now blog.

Herr Professor Doktor Jakob Erdheim Search the transcript
1933 / 5:16
Film fragment, no producer, no director, Vienna, Austria
Silent, black-and-white.

Sometime in the last century a fragment of silent film landed at the National Library of Medicine. How it got there is a mystery: no paperwork survives to tell the tale; no other prints of the film appear to have survived; no other sources on its making or showing have turned up. The film itself gives no direct information on its origins or purpose. It has no real title or credits, only a single intertitle that tersely announces the featured player, setting, and time: “Herr Professor Doktor Jakob Erdheim. Prosektor. Krankenhaus Der Stadt Wien. September 1933.”

What comes after that is extraordinary, a minor landmark of medical cinema: an autopsy, perhaps the first ever performed before a motion picture camera. On screen, a bespectacled man in a white coat happily cuts open an unidentified dead man, chatting all the while with students and colleagues...

Italo Calvino on Dr Spitzner’s Life-sized Wax Model of a Caesarean Section, from Morbid Anatomy's "The Anatomical Venus"

The most incredible example of sadist-surrealist fantasy is to be found among the representations of the various phrases of childbirth and gynaecological operations. A complete model of a patient undergoing a Caesarean section lies with her eyes wide open, her face distorted by pain, her hair impeccable, her calves tied together, dressed in a long, lace nightgown, which is open only at the part of her body which has been cut open by a scalpel, where the baby appears. Four male hands are placed on her body (two operating, two holding her waist): fine wax hands with manicured nails, ghostly hands since they are not supported by arms but adorned only with white cuffs and with the ends of the sleeves of a black jacket, as though the whole ceremony was being held by people in evening dress.
-- Italo Calvino on Dr Spitzner’s life-sized wax model of a caesarean section (above), from his essay ‘The Museum of Wax Monsters’, in Collection of Sand (first published in Italy in 1984, translated into English 2013).

Learn more about--and see many more images of!-- this and many other amazing waxes in the upcoming Morbid Anatomy book The Anatomical Venus, more on which here.

The Art and Anatomy of St. Bartholomew: Guest Post by Artist and Anatomist in Residence Emily Evans

Following is a guest post by Artist and Anatomist in Residence Emily Evans about flayed Saint Bartholomew and his curious afterlife in early anatomical illustration. You can find out more about Emily and her work here.

Tradition holds that the apostle Bartholomew was martyred by being flayed alive.

This brutal torture has been depicted in many different ways over the centuries. He is sometimes depicted holding the knife, which symbolizes his martyrdom. The artworks seem to evolve over time from showing him just before the blade strikes, to when flaying occurs and then in later works after the act, where he is draped in, or holding his own skin.

It can be difficult to view these artworks reflecting the act of being skinned alive without squirming thinking of the pain and blood. This is especially so in the early religious paintings of the saint.

Fine artists took the iconic portrayal of St. Bartholomew to use in their work. One of the most famous being Michelangelo who included Bartholomew holding a sheet of his own skin in his left hand and in his right hand is a knife in his famous Last judgment, in the Sistine chapel, The Vatican, Rome. The face on the skin is reputed to be a self-portrait of the artist.

For the anatomists among us, it’s possible to see past the grotesque barbaric act of flaying to reveal the beauty of the musculature beneath.

Medical illustrators took this concept and depicted a flayed anatomical man in a more anatomical context than religious one in the famous 16th century anatomical publications.

In 1543, Andreas Vesalius published De humani corporis fabrica (On the fabric of the human body). This groundbreaking anatomical tome consisted of engravings which many believe were created by Titian's pupil Jan Stephen van Calcar.

In 1560, Juan Valverde de Amusco published Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano of which all but 4 of its 42 engravings were taken almost directly from Vesalius’s Fabrica. The original illustrations are thought to be drawn by Gaspar Becerra who was a contemporary of Michelangelo, and the copperplate engravings executed by Nicolas Beatrizet.

This movement from the religious to the more artistic and anatomical depictions of Bartholomew continued with the sculpture by Marco D’Agrate who was a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci. It begins to become clear how d’Agrate was interested more in the relationship between art and science than in the one between art and religion.

The American writer Mark Twain certainly did not see this beauty when he saw Marco d’Agrate’s statue of St. Bartholomew in Milan where the saint is shown wearing his skin like a stole. He wrote in 1867:

‘The figure was that of a man without a skin; with every vein, artery, muscle, every fiber and tendon and tissue of the human frame represented in minute detail. It looked natural, because somehow it looked as if it were in pain. A skinned man would be likely to look that way unless his attention was occupied with some other matter.

‘It was a hideous thing, and yet there was a fascination about it somehow. I am very sorry I saw it, because I shall always see it now. I shall dream of it sometimes. I shall dream that it is resting its corded arms on the bed’s head and looking down on me with its dead eyes; I shall dream that it is stretched between the sheets with me and touching me with its exposed muscles and its stringy cold legs. It is hard to forget repulsive things’

In 2002, Gunther Von Hagen’s Bodyworlds came to London, and I saw ‘The Skin Man’ for the first time. Hagen’s plastination process enabled the first and only depiction of Bartholomew in actual human tissues.

Not long after, I saw Hirst’s ‘Exsquisite Pain’ at Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2009. This silver edition of the piece stands Bartholomew on a table covered in tools with a scalpel in one hand to reflect dissection traditions and in the other hand he is holding scissors (said to be inspired by Tim Burton’s film ‘Edward Scissorhands’ of 1990).

You can currently see an edition in gold at Great St Bartholomew church, London for the next few years.

Oddly, St. Bartholomew is also the patron saint of tanners!

Images top to bottom:
Fig.1. Saint Bartholomew, Church of San Laureano, Boyacá, Colombia (year not known)
Fig.2. Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, (1355-1360) Prato, Museo di Palazzo
Fig.3. The Apostle St Bartholomew, (1480) Matteo di Giovanni Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest Hungary.
Fig.4. St. Bartholomew displaying his flayed skin in Michelangelo's The Last Judgment. (1536-1541)
Fig.5. Juan Valverde de Amusco's Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano (Rome, 1560)
Fig.6. Statue of St. Bartholomew, with his own skin, by Marco d'Agrate, 1562 (Duomo di Milano)

Fig.7. Statue of St. Bartholomew at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran by Pierre Le Gros the Younger. (1666-1719)
Fig.8. The Skin Man, Gunther von Hagens, Institute for Plastination, Heidelberg, Germany, (1993)
Fig.9. Damien Hirst, Saint Bartholomew, Exquisite Pain, 2007, Silver