Anatomical Wax Models Research Articles

Frank Cockett and the story of the ancient anatomical wax model of the left iliac vein compression

In 1988, Professor Donini organized an international phlebo-lymphology meeting at the University of Ferrara in Italy. At that time, I was a young surgical resident with the task of picking up Professor Frank Cockett at the railway station. I recognized him immediately, introduced myself and, together, we crossed the station square to my car. I asked him where he wanted to be taken, and he asked me to go to the anatomical museum of the University. We arrived just before the closure time, and Mister Cockett was intrigued and enthusiastic about an anatomical wax specimen.

Anatomy and Ceroplastic School in Bologna: a heritage with unexpected perspective

Ceroplastic, the art of wax modelling, is a depiction mode that has been used widely throughout time for artistic, religious and social purposes. During the 16th Century, ceroplastic became also an essential tool for medical education thanks to the creation of the first anatomical wax models. For centuries, anatomists have worked with artists with the aim of producing faithful and long-lasting wax artefacts that reproduce physiological and/or pathological conditions. Important figures such as Ercole Lelli and Anna Morandi Manzolini refined the techniques of the anatomical wax modelling and created works that are to date preciously conserved. The scientific and didactic value of these works was indisputable, for wax anatomical models have deeply facilitated the education of medical students in that time. Nowadays, a similar impact on medical education is given by new technologies such as augmented reality, that allows the addition of virtual contents to tangible anatomical 3D models. Under this light, anatomical wax models and augmented reality can be compared as two innovative tools that have changed the history of anatomical teaching.

Rudolf Weisker’s anatomical and developmental wax models: New evidence and contexts concerning his career and sources

Abstract The institute for wax modelling founded in Leipzig by Rudolf Weisker (1845–1887) can be considered an important competitor to the earlier established and more successful producers of nineteenth-century developmental and anatomical wax models, Adolf and Friedrich Ziegler. This article establishes previously unknown aspects relating to Weisker, his background and sources. It examines why models from these producers were collected by universities and university-affiliated museums, and considers important differences affecting the production and ‘status’ of their models. It argues that Weisker’s career and models exemplify the impact of increasing specialization, as well as scientific controversies, during the second half of the nineteenth century, concerning scientific practice, publishing (both two- and three-dimensional) and collecting. It suggests that one reason Weisker was unable to thrive in competition with the Zieglers was that the emphasis of developmental models, especially, moved from illustrative to analytical during this period; Weisker, for reasons suggested here, was unable to respond to these changes.

Cadaver Imitations used in Anatomical Demonstrations: Wax Modelling in the 18th Century

The use of wax models has a long history associated with various connotations and practices. For centuries, models were predominantly of votive and devotional nature until the birth of anatomical wax modelling of the 18th century, when wax gained pre-eminently scientific connotations, parallel with all earlier practices. In this period, wax was found very suitable for scientific demonstrations by its plasticity through high level of naturalistic imitation. This is why it was chosen for manufacturing anatomical models, which showed contemporary knowledge about the human body in a comprehensive manner. The first centres of anatomical wax model production were established in Bologna, and then in Florence. Although such models were produced in other European countries, these two studios, especially the Florentine one, preserved its dominance, and exported models outside of Italy too. Yet there were general rules and manufactural techniques in some principles the studios showed different approaches in modelling. The Anatomical Venus, a specific genre of anatomical wax models, offered a valuable insight of reflections about contemporary ideas of female body, gender features and various connotations in a single wax object.

Kaat Wils, Raf de Bont, and Sokhieng Au, eds. Bodies Beyond Borders: Moving Anatomies 1750–1950

Stemming from a conference held in Leuven in January 2015, Bodies Beyond Borders brings together ten contributions discussing the circulation of anatomical and pathological knowledge, preparations, and images from the late eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. In the only contribution on the eighteenth century, Margaret Carlyle discusses the circulation of anatomical wax models across Paris, St. Petersburg, and London. Marie Marguerite Biheron is the protagonist of the essay, together with Catherine II in Russia, and a number of brokers and intellectuals, including Denis Diderot. Carlyle argues convincingly that wax models proved valuable tools, perfectly imitating real bodies minus the smell. Museums of wax models became obligatory stops for grand-tour Enlightenment travelers from northern Europe to Florence and Bologna. In his study of anatomy and sociability in Belgium, Joris Vandendriessche has taken “object biographies” as the methodology for his contribution. Anatomical and pathological preparations moved from patients to medical practitioners, from the periphery to urban centers, and from private to institutional collections, while becoming the centerpiece of sociability at a number of academies and medical societies across Belgium. Museums reflected and at the same time fostered the growth of pathological anatomy in the nineteenth century, shifting the focus from rare and exceptional curiosities to careful descriptions and systematic comparisons.

Digitalización e impresión 3D para la reconstrucción de pérdidas volumétricas en un modelo anatómico de cera del siglo XVIII

The three-dimensional models of wax belonging to the scientific heritage of the Complutense University of Madrid are a rare and extraordinary material that deserves to be preserved because it has great relevance to understand how surgeons and anatomists found formulas of visual construction that made possible the diffusion of his knowledge about the human body. In the present investigation, an anatomical wax model of the 18th century, with a remarkable degree of structural deterioration and weakness, has been restored, testing a new volumetric loss reconstruction methodology based on photogrammetric digitization of the sculpture, 3D modelling of the lost pieces and 3D printing of their moulds to obtain from them the final copies in waxy material. Due to this methodology, it has been possible to reduce the handling of the figure during the restoration process and the risk of accidental deterioration has been minimized.

Gaetano Zumbo's anatomical wax model: From skull to cranium.

Gaetano Giulio Zumbo's anatomical model of a head, executed in the late seventeenth century and now in Florence's La Specola, is the earliest known life-size wax model for use in study and research. The model conjoins experimental wax techniques with human matter such as hair, teeth and bone, and confronts the observer not only with the interior of the head but also with the face, brutally dissected and in the process of decomposing. By contrast, the back of the head offers an entirely different display, an actual human cranium cut across its upper part and revealing carefully dissected and vibrantly modeled sections of the brain. I argue that the incorporation of the disturbing presence of pain and sensation, usually barred from anatomical imagery, is compounded by the traditional dominance of the face, which continued to trouble attempts to bring physical specificity to the brain. In early modern anatomical research, the importance of the cranium as the container of the brain and the center of the body increasingly displaced the symbolic weight of the face-like skull. Yet the face continued to exert its presence, including through such substitutes as the cross section of the brain projected as a cartographic surface.

The Fontana collection and the Spitzner collection, the adventures of anatomical wax models between Paris and Montpellier

Liees a l’Ecole de medecine de Paris et reunies aujourd’hui a l’Universite de Montpellier, les deux collections de cire des plus prestigieuses, celles de Fontana et de Spitzner, enrichissent l’histoire de ces tresors de la science et de l’art mettant en scene les plus celebres cerisculpteurs, du XVIIIe au XXe siecle : Fontana, Susini, Laumonier, Baretta, Talrich, Tramond... Pour ces objets de memoire, deux logiques se completent : la logique de sauvegarde in situ et la logique de presentation museale, toutes deux initiees par le classement au titre des monuments historiques.

Authenticity in Anatomy Art.

The aim of this paper is to observe the evolution and evaluate the 'realness' and authenticity in Anatomy Art, an art form I define as one which incorporates accurate anatomical representations of the human body with artistic expression. I examine the art of 17th century wax anatomical models, the preservations of Frederik Ruysch, and Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds plastinates, giving consideration to authenticity of both body and art. I give extra consideration to the works of Body Worlds since the exhibit creator believes he has created anatomical specimens with more educational value and bodily authenticity than ever before. Ultimately, I argue that von Hagens fails to offer Anatomy Art 'real human bodies,' and that the lack of bodily authenticity of his plastinates results in his creations being less pedagogic than he claims.

L’acquisition en France d’une cire anatomique pour Pierre le Grand: autour d’un traité et de ses suites

During his second tour of Europe, whose 300th anniversary is celebrated in 2017, Peter I visited Paris. He visited the main landmarks of the city, especially those related to his interest in the natural sciences and technology. For instance, he repeatedly visited the Royal Botanical Garden. There, he became acquainted with the renowned doctor, professor of anatomy, and member of the Paris Academy of Sciences Joseph-Guichard Duverney (1648–1730). He was well known in Europe, had a lot of connections with other scientists, and was famous for his wax anatomical models and ‘anatomical demonstrations’ (public lectures in anatomy). Among others, Duverney communicated with Robert Areskine, a physician of Scottish descent at Peter’s court. Peter ordered an anatomical model for his collection in the Kunstkamera, which proves the interest the tsar had in Duverney’s talents. Areskine represented Peter the Great in the purchase. The anatomical model of a human brain and skull is still kept in the Kunstkamera collection. However, until recently there was no information on how it was made. Referring to a previously unpublished document from the National Archive of France and other French and Russian sources (including archival ones), this article reconstructs the story of the model’s creation and provides new historical data that helps us to understand Peter’s initial idea after meeting Duverney and the changes the project underwent while it was being implemented.

Multi-layer spiral CT with 2D, 3D and 4D volume rendered electronic reconstructions of wax models and natural bone made by Giuseppe Astorri kept at “Luigi Cattaneo” Museum in Bologna

The Museum’s collection of normal and pathological wax anatomical models provides a clear understanding of the developments in medical knowledge that took place during the 18th and 19th centuries. In this period the interest of the anatomists began to move from normal anatomy to pathological anatomy. The wax modelers made both types of wax anatomical models: normal and pathological. Our study investigates through the works of Giuseppe Astorri the differences between these two types of models, revealing hidden structures and materials used in a completely non-invasive way. The Computer Tomography (CT) analysis was carried out using an experimental CT system specifically designed for the analysis of Cultural Heritage materials, developed by the X-ray imaging research group at the Physics and Astronomy Department of the University of Bologna. The results of this project can also be shown through a dynamic 3D (i.e. 4D) virtual projection using a device capable of emulating a holographic representation.

The Application of Colour Management to a Photographic Record for the Conservation of Scientific Collections: Anatomical Wax Models

The Application of Colour Management to a Photographic Record for the Conservation of Scientific Collections: Anatomical Wax Models

인체의 고안 : 18세기 스페콜라 박물관의 해부학 밀랍모델

인체의 고안 : 18세기 스페콜라 박물관의 해부학 밀랍모델

Corrado Tumiati, Luigi Castaldi and their reappraisal of the role of Clemente Susini (1754-1814) in the accomplishment of the anatomical wax models of La Specola and of those now in Cagliari

Corrado Tumiati (1885-1967) the youngest among the four brothers to whom the city of Ferrara dedicated a memorial tablet on the front of their house, was a psychiatrist who, at the age of 47, for disagreement with the authorities (he had refused to become a member of the fascist party) left the medical profession to devote himself to literary activities. As stated by Giuseppina Bock–Berti (2005), there is much to be said of him as writer, poet, translator and editor of famous literary magazines. In between the two wars, his prestige was so high that, despite his political credo, he was given responsibility for the editorship of the literary page of the Corriere della Sera, a job he maintained till 1946. Just in this capacity, on 18/01/1939 he published the article: “Le cere della Specola” that he extended and repeated in two essays published in 1941 and in 1942, by which he vindicated to Susini the authorship of the waxes produced in La Specola in a time when, outside from Sardinia, they were known in all Europe under the name of Fontana, the founder of the museum. Tumiati, who gives a vivid description of the artistic value of the models, even challenges the reader to find the name of Clemente Susini in any encyclopedia worldwide. A few years later, possibly inspired by Tumiati, Luigi Castaldi (1890-1945) the then anatomist of Cagliari, as appear from the news published in L’Unione Sarda on 03/12/1942, started his seminal work on the collections of Cagliari and Florence. Moreover, he reports on F.A. Boi, the Sardinian anatomist who performed the dissection then reproduced by Susini (Riva and Conti, 2015). Boi was unknown to Tumiati who does not mention him. Castaldi’s masterly essay: “Francesco Antonio Boi primo cattedratico di Anatomia a Cagliari e le cere fiorentine di Clemente Susini” (Olschki, Firenze), gives an unprecedented description of La Specola Museum and of the persons responsible for its establishment. The book published posthumously in Florence (1947) through the good offices of his friends, was instrumental in reinstating the fame of Clemente Susini.

Uncovered secret of a Vasseur-Tramond wax model.

The technique of anatomical wax modelling reached its heyday in Italy during the 18th century, through a fruitful collaboration between sculptors and anatomists. It soon spread to other countries, and prestigious schools were created in England, France, Spain and Austria. Paris subsequently replaced Italy as the major centre of manufacture, and anatomical waxes were created there from the mid-19th century in workshops such as that of Vasseur-Tramond. This workshop began to sell waxes to European Faculties of Medicine and Schools of Surgery around 1880. Little is known of the technique employed in the creation of such artefacts as this was deemed a professional secret. To gain some insight into the methods of construction, we have studied a Vasseur-Tramond wax model in the Valladolid University Anatomy Museum, Spain, by means of multi-slice computerised tomography and X-ray analysis by means of environmental scanning electron microscopy. Scanning electron microscopy was used to examine the hair. These results have revealed some of the methods used to make these anatomical models and the materials employed.

Giovanni Tumiati and the origin of the “Museo Anatomico” of the University of Ferrara

In the 1790s Giovanni Tumiati, a professor of anatomy and obstetrics at the University of Ferrara, prepared some wax models of the fetus and the female body to be used in his obstetrical teaching to midwives. The models were then acquired by the University of Ferrara and formed the original nucleus of the anatomical Museum of the University, which is now dedicated to Tumiati (1, 2). In his Elements of anatomy, published in 1799-1800, Tumiati explained that the models were the result of his collaboration with Giuseppe Chiappi, an anatomical sculptor from central Italy, and described the method of their production (3). Although there was a long tradition of wax modelling in anatomy and obstetrics, which certainly influenced Tumiati and Chiappi’s work, Ferrara’s models were original both in design and concept (4), thus representing a unique example of anatomical wax models in the history of medicine.

Anatomical Models: A History of Disappearance?

In her introduction to Ephemeral Bodies: Wax Sculpture and the Human Figure, Roberta Panzanelli presents the history of wax as “a history of disappearance—transformed, softened, liquefied, and sometimes lost forever”. Wax objects are today seldom part of our environment. Apart from some popular museums, such as Tussaud’s, wax models are no longer used, no longer in vogue, and this is most particularly the case for wax anatomical models which used to be the pride of eighteenth- and nineteenth-...

Florentine anatomical models and the challenge of medical authority in late-eighteenth-century Vienna

This paper investigates the reception of a set of Florentine anatomical wax models on display at the medico-surgical academy Josephinum in late-eighteenth-century Vienna. Celebrated in Florence as tools of public enlightenment, in the Habsburg capital the models were criticised by physicians, who regarded the Josephinum and its surgeons as a threat to their medical authority. The controversy surrounding these models from the empire’s periphery temporarily destabilised the relationship between surgeons and physicians in the Austrian capital. The debate on the utility of the Tuscan anatomical models in Vienna highlights the fact that the centre of the Habsburg empire was by no means medically homogeneous, and that the implementation of reforms could be as difficult to achieve in the capital as in the provinces.

Anna Maerker, Model Experts: Wax Anatomies and Enlightenment in Florence and Vienna, 1775-1815

Model Experts is a welcome addition to scholarship on the history of the wax anatomical collection of ‘La Specola’ in Florence (Museo di Storia Naturale, Sezione Zoologica). Studying the emerging role of the expert in state service through archival records, reports, gazettes, letters and ephemera from 1775 to 1815, Model Experts opens perspectives on the social and political conditions of the Enlightenment in Florence and Vienna, relationships among scientific experts and the state, and notions of public education. The first section of the book examines relationships among the major figures in the development of one of Europe's first public science museums, Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo's Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History, along with the ‘politics of nature’ (p. 39) that underpinned that project. Chapter 1 sets the famed anatomical collection in that museum—with its languid decomposable wax ‘Venuses’, flayed men, and individual anatomical studies—within Pietro Leopoldo's vision of the utility of public spectacle. Ordering an end to competing popular entertainments in Tuscany, including charlatans, puppeteers and itinerant storytellers, the Grand Duke instituted a vigorous project of public entertainment and education designed to ‘enlighten the public and make it happy by making it educated’ (p. 20) as a contemporary gazette reported. That enlightenment, promoted through the institutional display of wax anatomical models at La Specola, simultaneously legitimised the ruler and the state as the executors of natural laws. Chapter 2 examines the contributions of the physician Antonio Coccchi, the obstetrician Giuseppe Gallettti, and director Felice Fontana to the development of medicine in the service of the state.

The lady anatomist

The lady anatomist