Accurate representations of the body were required to accompany the institution of anatomy lessons at major European medical universities in the early 14th century. Corpses deteriorated quickly in the anatomical theatre, increasing the need to record vital information – initially through engravings and, as ceroplastic technology advanced, with three dimensional wax models.
Wellcome Collection are having an exhibition until 18 October (Thanks Mill)
disgusting but at the same time amazing!
I went to see this at the weekend – it was astonishing. Do go upstairs and visit the rest of the galleries about the development of medicine (and you can do a bit of colouring-in in the last room). Also, the Wellcome Collection has an unexpectedly nice cafe attached where they do a most acceptalbe range of muffins (I recommend the apple and cinamon) and hot beverages – oh and a Blackwells’ bookshop where my wife bought a book called “Servants of the Supernatural: The night side of Victorian nature” – but she is strange anyway.
Visited their branch in Old Holbern which houses genuine specimens for medical students. Not sure how accessible the collection is these days as I was just a fine art student at the time. Our group of art students were posing as medical undergrads but whether they would have let us in if they knew we weren’t I don’t know.
Upstairs is standard cadavre disections, mostly preserved in formaldehyde. I was morbidly intrigued by the fact that formaldehyde disolves blackheads, though I have no plans to use it as part of my skincare regime any time soon. It left some pretty big craters in the nose of one specimen.
Downstairs is Victorian specimens and the boundary between science and freakshow is well and truly blurred.
wow, plasticine porters!
And you can become one of those exquisite bodies! Anatomy still needs bodies … real bodies (dead ofcourse) ……..
Darn i want to see that too…and would love to make wax works instead of sculpting which takes a Looooong time, that clip of how to wax looks pretty easy but then, i bet wax is bloody expensive to work with…
I went to see this last Saturday. Not as gruesome as I thought it was going to be. The two headed calf was strangely fascinating. Loved the chastity belt in the Medicine Man exhibition, but what was with the “flower” shaped poo hole?
reminds me of ron mueck, now his stuff is shocking
On the subject of weird and wax… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Tanzler