This Mortal Coil: A Halloween Treat

[Curt Chiarelli]

Apropos to the spirit of the Witching Season, I'd like to introduce everyone here to a very important, yet totally obscure, figure in the world of not only figurative sculpting, but also human anatomy studies: the 17th century master technician and father of the modern anatomical model, Gaetano Guilio Zummo.

Born in Syracusa, Sicily in 1665 to a wealthy, aristocratic family. He studied in a Jesuit monastery and was expelled for undisclosed reasons. He moved to Naples and then Bologna where the first school of cereplastics was founded near an anatomical institute. From there he moved to Florence to work under Cosimo III de Medici. When he abruptly left his service, Cosimo was quoted as saying, "You may very well find a greater patron, but never will you find one who understands or appreciates your worth as much as I". From there he headed to Genoa to work with the noted French surgeon Guillarme Desnoues on several wax models. Another falling out in 1700 ended this association too and he then headed north to Marseilles, France at the invitation of the court of Louis XIV. Although we know virtually nothing of the man or his character, reading between the lines of these collective incidents, apparently Gaetano was a formidible man of some stubborness and pride. His reputation while an employee under Louis XIV reached its zenith just before his death from a cerebral haemorrhage 1701.

Gaetano's work can be broken down into two distinct phases: his purely scientific anatomical models and his later "teatrini" or dioramas which ruminated upon the subject of man's transcience.

When looking at his teatrini, a modern audience must keep in mind the necessity of judging his work within the context of the era and cultural milieu in which he lived. 300 years ago the experience of death and corruption (as opposed to the sanitized, distanced and highly attenuated incarnations our society deals in) were as commonplace as hamburger franchise outlets in ours. Executed criminals were left to hang on gibbetts outside the gates of most major cities. The wealthy and powerful were interred under the floor of churches and their stench making Sunday worship at times difficult for parishioners. Many monuments and headstones had memento mori reminding the living of the frailty of man. Visions of the Danse Macabre (or in its German translation, "Totentanz") paraded across tapestries, woodblock illustrations, murals and public sculptures. Innumerable wars, famines and plague epidemics ravaged Europe. Gaetano's art merely reflected the times in which he lived, and were not necessarily the expression of a diseased mind or one overtly fixated upon morbid subject matter.

After his death, his work was distributed throughout Europe in various collections of the nobility, largely forgotten and shuttered away due to their grotesque subject matter until the Marquis De Sade revived some interest in them when he himself wrote of the experience - the "fearful truth" - of viewing his works. Some of his models found a home at the Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence. In 1966 a violent rainstorm damaged several of his models, some beyond repair. Another, "Il Morbo Gallico" was entirely destroyed in the basement where it was stored when the River Arno flooded.

Although he's been demoted to less than a footnote in the annals of art history Gaetano's reputation deserves much better than his current fate. Anyone who has studied this masterpiece of biological engineering called the human body will attest that an understanding of its structures and their relationships to one another is greatly enhanced through the use of 3-dimensional models as opposed to flat 2-dimensional diagrams. His technical mastery of cereplastics, moldmaking and casting were as legendary as they were innovative and his work ranks him with another brilliant artist of the Neo-Classical Period, Clemente Susini.

Although wax has been used as a modeling material since before the dawn of recorded time, Gaetano's use of differently coloured waxes for ecorche models that could be disassembled predated this practice by a full century. Later generations owe a debt of gratitude to him.

[j. d. worthington]

Fascinating -- and important -- work, Curt. I've heard the name before, but never saw any of his work; thanks for bringing it over here.

And you're right, of course, such is no indication of a morbid sensibility (or at least, no more so than was quite usual for his time); simply a more natural view of death and mortality as part of the experience of life. After all, people often did their own "laying out" of the dead in their families, and bodies were often kept in the homes in open coffins for several days before being interred (unless the person was feared to have died of a contagious disease).

I hope you don't mind me bringing in a few links of related subject matter; though I will warn that these pictures may be a bit strong for those with a highly-developed fear of death or unease at the sight of human remains... in most cases here, bones only....

Bone Chapel Pictures - Evora Portugal - Capela dos Ossos

Photos of Sedlec Ossuary, Sedlec, Czech Republic

Catacombe dei Cappuccini (Catacombs of the Capuchins) - Palermo, Sicily, Italy

[Curt Chiarelli]

Not at all! The more the merrier I say! (I'd be nice if more folks contributed to such threads.)

Perchance, have you seen Peter Hujar's macabre photography of the Catacombe di Cappuccini in his now rare volume, Portraits in Life and Death? It will deal you a blow that you'll never recover from . . . . Chilling.

As someone with a scholarly bent, you know that the history of art is littered with such forgotten geniuses. Go to any library or museum storeroom and you'll find them cluttered, stuffed to the brim, with the fruits of their labours. And we are all the richer for their efforts.

On a drier, more clinical note, here are some of Zummo's anatomical models:

[j. d. worthington]

This is going to probably sound really off, but... that second one seems to me to have an odd beauty to it --a certain serenity and even tinge of nobility to the features (probably due to the way they are composed, including the closed eyelids); whereas the others are rather ... tortuous....

I must admit that I find such things fascinating; say, the exhibits of the plasticized cadavers that have caused such controversy. I think it is in part (in my case) a morbid curiosity combined with a clinical curiosity -- but also I find it leads to a certain respect for the incredible complexity of the human organism (or, for that matter, any other); a heightened awareness and respect, I should say.

But then, I've always been especially fond of graveyards, churchyards, family burial grounds, etc. (Not the modern version, which are so damned geometric and sterile -- those are depressing, and thoroughly dead; the older ones, which made it a part of the cycle of life and tended to reflect the lives of those buried there in some way... very peaceful places to go and reflect, or read, or just watch the small things that make their homes there....)

[Allegra]

Breathtaking masterpieces. Thanks! Wish I can see the real thing of Gaetano Giulio Zummo someday.

[Curt Chiarelli]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

But then, I've always been especially fond of graveyards, churchyards, family burial grounds, etc.

Visits are fine J.D. . . . . just so long as you don't become a permanent resident!

[Curt Chiarelli]

Originally Posted by Allegra

Breathtaking masterpieces. Thanks! Wish I can see the real thing of Gaetano Giulio Zummo someday.

If you ever visit Florence you can see not only his work but the tools he used to create them with too. Having done wax sculpture I can tell you that they have not changed much in either look nor principle since the 17th century!

[Allegra]

Thanks for the info, Curt. One more reason to go to Firenze again!

[MinasTirithGuard]

Somehow I'm feeling this strange sensation of deja vu

[Curt Chiarelli]

Originally Posted by MinasTirithGuard

Somehow I'm feeling this strange sensation of deja vu

And so you should Ethan, so you should! Welcome aboard the good ship Chronics -Network!