Video

A group of scholars from the Alma Mater Studiorum will present a video depicting a historical reconstruction of the birth and development of anatomical ceroplastics work in the “felsinea” city. “Perceptions”, as redemption of flesh and resurrection of life, derived from the application of the art of wax modeling to Medicine. This application was inspired by the principle that anatomical dissection is an indispensable learning tool as first stated in 1316 by Mondino de Liuzzi. The first anatomical wax modelings were prepared in 1742, in the scientific laboratories by Ercole Lelli (1702-1766), Giovanni Manzolini (1700-1750) and Anna Morandi (1714-1774).By the end of the eighteenth century, the affirmation of the anatomo-pathological paradigm gave to the study of “diseases” a comparative twist: new diagnosis began to relay on experience acquired during investigations of similar cases made in the past. To achieve this goal, they recorded experiences not only through written words, but also through anatomic modelings. The ductility of the waxes was instrumental to reproduce the various aspects of an illness bridged the gap between life and death since the replication of the visible consequences of an illness made when the patient was still alive allowed scientists to observe and study the damage inflicted by the disease also after the patient had been long dead. This transition from medicine to the art applies also to animal disease, which progressively acquires its own autonomy and is given birth to a very large waxes collection made by leading ceroplastic artists Giuseppe Astorri (1785-1852) and Cesare Bettini (1814-1885) who produced wax reproductions of normal and pathological human anatomy and pathological veterinary anatomy. The large collection of wax models are retained in Museum of “Palazzo Poggi”, in Museum of Anatomical Waxes "Luigi Cattaneo" and in the Museum of Veterinary Pathology "Alessandrini Ercolani", all together part of the University Museum System (SMA).