JCOM: Journal of Science Communication (Sep 2005)
The rotten, the disembowelled woman, the skinned man - Body images from eighteenth Century Florentine wax modelling
Abstract
Florence’s Museum of La Specola stirs up strong emotions. Amongst its collections, the valuable anatomical wax models created between the 17th and 18th century stand out due to the marvellous and provocative nature of its pieces. The aim of this essay is to analyse the communication models epitomised by some of these works by means of historic semiotics. This is in order to nourish the shared, but often underestimated assumption that science and the means used to spread it have always been influenced by intellectual suppositions and fused with culture.
