Dissecting Venus: a goddess born from a corpse, dismembered layer by layer under gaze.

A Sleeping Beauty lies quietly in a delicate glass box.

she leaned loosely on the silk cushion, her head leaned back slightly, and her naked skin had a soft sheen. Around her neck, a pearl necklace cleverly hid the secret below-it was a seam.

she looks like a sleeping woman, but it's a removable model made of wax. Opening the chest and abdominal cavity of the model, people reveal a completely different situation: in the torso of "Sleeping Beauty", there are layers of overlapping tissue and internal organs, with seven layers of structure. Opening the last layer of structure, we will see the section of the uterus of Sleeping Beauty-there is also a small fetus hidden in it.

"Medici Venus" (Medici Venus), was born in 1780-1782 wax anatomical model (slide left and right for a full view) | Joanna Ebenstein/Natural History Museum of Florence

the dissected goddess

in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, wax artists created a series of wax models called "anatomical Venus", which showed perfect female images in people's minds. And highly accurate visceral anatomy. What we see above is one of the most famous-she is often called "Medici Venus" (Medici Venus), which comes from a famous marble sculpture.

at that time, these equal-size, detachable wax models were considered the perfect tool for learning human anatomy. On the other hand, they are also examined by the public with a curious eye.

the anatomical model "Little Venus" (Venerina, little Venus), was made in 1782 | Joanna Ebenstein /Museo di Palazzo Poggi-Universit à di Bologna

in 1771, (La Specola) of the Florence Natural Museum established the wax model workshop, in which many "Anatomical Venus" and other wax models were born. The waxy model makes up for the deficiency of plane drawing and can reduce the actual autopsy at the same time, so it is welcomed by medical schools all over the country.

some contemporary models show the pale and painful look of the corpse, but the style of "dissecting Venus" is completely different:  these female wax figures have smooth skin, calm expression, and relaxed posture as if they were just asleep. Even if they are disassembled and observed, they will not feel the smell of illness and death.

another "dissecting Venus" model was created between 1784 and 1788. The above models were all made by Italian sculptor Suzani. HECAA

besides serving medical students, dissecting Venus is also a prop for educating and entertaining the public. These models, packed in exquisite glass boxes, are often displayed on tour in amusement parks, sometimes attracting tens of thousands of visitors in a day.

A face-detachable "dissecting Venus" model (slide left to see what it looks like) | Marc Danton /Universit é de Montpellier

born from hundreds of corpses

"dissecting Venus" keeps the observer from having to face the fear of dissecting a corpse, but she still can't be born without a corpse. To accurately restore the internal structure of the human body, wax artists need to work with doctors to make a large number of observations of real corpses.

in the waxy model workshop in Florence, people refer to the body from the nearby New Santa Maria Hospital.  corpses tend to rot soon, and modeling requires a high degree of detail restoration, so it is sometimes necessary to refer to more than 200 corpses to complete the production  [1]. Fortunately, once the mold is left, the same set of models can be copied multiple times.

the waxy anatomical model exhibition hall of the Florence Nature Museum

here, much of the "anatomical Venus" is written by Clement Michelangelo Susini (Clemente Michelangelo Susini). The Italian sculptor can accurately restore the details of human organs by eye observation and manual reproduction, and both anatomists and artists praise his work. Even some anatomical structures that had not yet been named at that time were faithfully reproduced in the model.

the sculptor Suzini's self-statue meisterdrucke. UK

after making a preliminary statue concerning the corpse, the sculptor will turn the mold with plaster and then cast the model with colored wax. After demolding, they painted more details on the surface of the model, made slender nerves and blood vessels out of thread dipped in wax oil, and then carefully assembled the parts. These wax models are hollow, filled with cloth balls and broken wood for support, and some are equipped with metal brackets. To make Venus more beautiful, people will add glass eyes, eyelashes, and human hair to them.

the slender structure on the model is made of linen thread or silk thread dipped in wax oil.

valuable materials that are not out of date

the wax models represented by "dissecting Venus" were born hundreds of years ago, but until now, they are still considered to have important reference value.

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2In 2007, researchers at Stanford Medical School scanned about 200 waxy anatomical models in high definition, established their digital models, and brought them into the classroom. Medical students say these long-established wax models still have unique advantages:  they are closer to the original tissue color than embalmed specimens and much more refined than pure virtual models  [2].

until now, wax models are still helping students learn anatomy. John Green

because the models are so accurate, people can even make a medical diagnosis for an "anatomical Venus" more than two hundred years later. The model, known as Little Venus (Venerina, little Venus), accurately reproduces the characteristics of congenital heart disease: her ventricular wall thickness is different from that of healthy people, and there is an unclosed ductus arteriosus between the aortic arch and the pulmonary artery. The researchers believe that the prototype of Little Venus may have died of endocardial infection or heart dysfunction that worsened during pregnancy [3].

and beyond science, the strange beauty of Venus intertwined with serenity and horror still lingers in the world.

add:

after writing this article, I found that the reference book for dissecting Venus I read is already available in Chinese. If you are interested, you can come and have a look at it. The name is "Anatomical Venus: the Eternal Goddess of dedicated Medicine."