This occurred to me while I was still at the House of Wax, but it wasn't confirmed for me until, a number of gelatos later, I arrived at the Palazzo Strozzi. Courtesy: Wellcome Library, LondonĪnd as if that wasn't enough, the waxworks anticipate modern art by over a hundred years. Richard Ennis, anatomical head based on the wax models at La Specola, Florence, 2001, oil on wood, 1.4 x 1.2 m. Susini's full-scale women seem at once Marianic and erotic as they recline guts akimbo in their vitrines, but any lone brainstem or kidney remains a spectacle in itself. The waxworks are not merely mimetic objects they are tours de force of texture, colour, composition and imagery. 'Italian waxes are imbued with a real sense of beauty,' writes the art historian Roberta Ballestriero, in contrast to 'specimens from northern countries such as the UK, the Netherlands or Germany are usually more realistic, almost brutal, preferring anatomical accuracy rather than artistic flair.' If the sculptors of La Specola had really just wanted to reproduce the human body as accurately as possible, their work would not have developed any formalist qualities, and yet you can detect an exuberant local style jostling against the utilitarian demands of the job. One of the things that makes these waxworks so dazzling is that their creators clearly couldn't help but revel in their mastery of this very specific art. Courtesy: Science Museum, London, and Wellcome Images It's more than you ever wanted to know about your own insides.įemale wax anatomical model, attributed to Clemente Susini, c.1771-1800. So you're presented with torsos butterflied, heads cross-sectioned, glands under glass like chokers in a jewellery shop. 'It will be of infinite use in providing a perfect knowledge of all organs of the human body, allowing all and sundry to learn without any feeling or disgust or hesitation the more intricate details of anatomy,' declared Felice Fontana, the first director of the museum. In theory, the waxworks at La Specola are not artworks they are educational tools. Courtesy: Science Museum, London, and Wellcome Images Wax male figure showing the muscles of the body, attributed to Clemente Susini, c.1776-1780. I toured La Specola with a dropped jaw, but what made the day even more revelatory was that I inadvertently curated a perfect two-part exhibition for myself, beginning at La Specola and ending ten minutes across the Arno at the Palazzo Strozzi's ‘From Kandinsky to Pollock: The Art of the Guggenheim Collections’. The model was on display at La Specola, a museum that holds the largest collection of anatomical waxworks in the world, produced between 17 in the workshops of great sculptors including Clemente Susini and Gaetano Giulio Zumbo. I didn't bother to go to the Uffizi or the Accademia or the Palatine, but I did see a wax model of a dissected woman that gave me more pleasure than any Renaissance painting possibly could have. Recently I made my first ever visit to the city of Florence.
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