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Tom Thumb! Taxidermy, Hair Art and Bat Skeleton in Dome Workshops! Bartitsu Victorian Self Defense System Demonstration! Rest in Pieces Book Party! This Week and Beyond at Morbid Anatomy Presents

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Tom Thumb! Taxidermy, Hair Art and Bat Skeleton in Dome Workshops! Bartitsu-The Victorian Self Defense System Demonstration! Rest in Pieces Book Party! This Week and Beyond at Morbid Anatomy Presents.

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General Tom Thumb, or, the Commercial Wonders of 19th-Century AmericaIllustrated Lecture with Matthew Wittmann, Curatorial Fellow at the Bard Graduate Center and author of Circus and the City: New York, 1793-2010
Date: Tuesday, March 19
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Charles Sherwood Stratton (1838-1883), better know to the world as General Tom Thumb, was a dwarf, an entertainer, and one of the most famous Americans of the 19th century. His success in the United States transformed the traditional exhibition of lusus naturae, or human wonders, into a flourishing commercial industry. This presentation explores what made the diminutive General such a sensation and traces his fascinating career from the boards of Barnum’s American Museum through his celebrated tour around the world.

Matthew Wittmann is a Curatorial Fellow at the Bard Graduate Center, the author of Circus and the City: New York, 1793-2010 (BGC, 2012) and co-editor of The American Circus (Yale, 2012). He is a graduate of the Program in American Culture at the University of Michigan and is working on projects that range from popular entertainment to Pacific history. He blogs about these assorted interests at http://www.matthewwittmann.com.

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Classic (Naturalistic) Mouse Taxidermy Class with Divya Anantharaman: Offsite at Acme Studio
Date: Saturday, March 30
Time: 1-5 PM
Admission: $110
***Please note: This class will be held offsite at Acme Studio : 63 N. 3rd Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Advance Tickets Required; Click here to purchase.
Class limit: 10
This class is part of the Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

The natural world has long captivated human kind, and taxidermy has played a large role in our understanding and study of animals; the painstaking creation of life-like mounts take much attention and research, and requires and builds a deep appreciation of nature.

In this class, Divya Anantharaman--who learned her craft under the tutelage of famed Observatory instructor Sue Jeiven--will lead students in an investigation into the humble mouse. Students will create a fully finished classic mount of a mouse, on a base and in the natural setting of their choice. Students will learn everything involved in producing a finished mount, from initial preparation, hygiene and sanitary measures, fleshing, tail stripping, and dry preservation. The use of anatomical study, reference photos, and detailed observation will also be reviewed as important tools in recreating the nuanced poses and expressions that magically reanimate a specimen. Students are welcome to bring their own bases and accessories if something specific is desired. All other supplies will be provided for use in class.

Each student will leave class with a fully finished piece, and the knowledge to create their own pieces in the future.

Divya Anantharaman is a Brooklyn based artist whose taxidermy practice was sparked by a lifelong fascination with natural mythology and everyday oddities. After a journey filled with trial and error, numerous books, and an inspiring class (Sue Jeiven's popular Anthropomorphic Mouse Taxidermy Class at Observatory!), she has found her calling in creating sickly sweet and sparkly critters. Beginning with mice and sparrows, her menagerie grew to include domestic cats, woodchucks, and deer. Recently profiled on Vice Fringes, the New York Observer, and other publications, she will also be appearing in the upcoming season of Oddities-and is definitely up to no good shenanigans. You can find out more at http://www.d-i-v-y-a.com
Also, some technical notes:

  • We use NO harsh or dangerous chemicals.
  • Everyone will be provided with gloves.
  • All animals are disease free.
  • Although there will not be a lot of blood or gore, a strong constitution is necessary; taxidermy is not for everyone
  • All animals were already dead, nothing was killed for this class.
  • Please do not bring any dead animals with you to the class.

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Class: The Victorian Art of Hair Jewelry with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
Date: Sunday, April 7
Time: 1-5 PM
Admission: $75
***Must RSVP to Laetitia [at] atlasobscura.com to be added to class list; 15 person limit
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

Hair jewelry was an enormously popular form of commemorative art that began in the late 17th century and reached its zenith during the Victorian Era. Hair, either of someone living or deceased, was encased in metal lockets or woven to enshrine the human relic of a loved one. This class will explore a modern take on the genre.

The technique of "palette working" or arranging hair in artful swoops and curls will be explored and a variety of ribbons, beads, wire and imagery of mourning iconography will be supplied for potential inclusion. A living or deceased person or pet may be commemorated in this manner.

Students are requested to bring with them to class their own hair, fur, or feathers; all other necessary materials will be supplied. Hair can be self-cut, sourced from barber shops or hair salons (who
are usually happy to provide you with swept up hair), from beauty supply shops (hair is sold as extensions), or from wig suppliers. Students will leave class with their own piece of hair jewelry and the knowledge to create future projects.

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany and Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art and Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled Hairy Secrets:... In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

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Bartitsu-The Victorian Self Defense System: A lecture and Demonstration by The Bartitsu Club of New York and Ghoul A Go Go’s Vlad Tsepis
Date: Sunday April 7th
Time: 8.00
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy and the Bartitsu Club Of New York

Bartitsu was a Victorian system of self defense. Taught in the late 1890s, it is regarded by some as the first mixed martial arts system. Originally learned by gentlemen, and gentle women, as a way to fend off footpads and other thugs of the day, Bartitsu is now seeing a revival.

The Bartitsu Club of New York is gearing up for a Spring seminar and invites you to Observatory for a preview. Introduced by Vlad Tsepis of Ghoul A Go-Go, the Bartitsu Club will present a basic introduction to Bartitsu and its founder, as well as the historical background of self defense in Victorian England. Some techniques will be demonstrated as a prelude to what you can learn more in depth. You will leave knowing "an excellent method of forcing an undesirable person out of your room."

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Raccoon Head Taxidermy Class with Rogue Taxidermist Katie Innamorato

Date: Sunday, April 14
Time: 12 – 6 PM
Admission: $350
***Class Limited to 5; Must RSVP to katie.innamorato [at] gmail.com
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

This course will introduce students to basic and fundamental taxidermy techniques and procedures. Students will be working with donated raccoon skins and will be going through the steps to do a head mount. The class is only available to 5 students, allowing for more one on one interaction and assistance. Students will be working with tanned and lightly prepped skin; there will be no skinning of the animals in class. This is a great opportunity to learn the basic steps to small and large mammal taxidermy. All materials will be supplied by the instructor, and you will leave class with your own raccoon head mount.

Rogue taxidermist Katie Innamorato has a BFA in sculpture from SUNY New Paltz, has been featured on the hit TV show "Oddities," and has had her work featured at La Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles, California. She is self and professionally taught, and has won multiple first place ribbons and awards at the Garden State Taxidermy Association Competition. Her work is focussed on displaying the cyclical connection between life and death and growth and decomposition. Katie is a member of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, and with all M.A.R.T. members she adheres to strict ethical guidelines when acquiring specimens and uses roadkill, scrap, and donated skins to create mounts.
Her website and blogs-
http://www.afterlifeanatomy.com
http://www.afterlifeanatomy.tumblr.com
http://www.facebook.com/afterlifeanatomy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/afterlifeanatomy

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Bat in Glass Dome Workshop
Part of DIY Wunderkammer Series: With Wilder Duncan (formerly of Evolution Shop, Soho) and Laetitia Barbier, head librarian at The Morbid Anatomy Library

With Wilder Duncan (formerly of Evolution Store, Soho) and Laetitia Barbier, head librarian at The Morbid Anatomy Library
Date: Sunday, April 21
Time: 1 – 6 PM
Admission: $200
*** MUST RSVP to Laetitia [at] atlasobscura.com 
This class is part of the DIY Wunderkammer Series and The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

In this class, students will learn how to create an osteological preparation of a bat in the fashion of 19th century zoological displays. A bat skeleton, a glass dome, branches, glue, tools, and all necessary materials will be provided for each student, but one should feel welcome to bring small feathers, stones, dried flowers, dead insects, natural elements, or any other materials s/he might wish to include in his/her composition. Students will leave the class with a visually striking, fully articulated, “lifelike” bat skeleton posed in a 10” tall glass dome. This piece can, in conjunction with the other creations in the DIY Wunderkammer workshop series, act as the beginning of a genuine collection of curiosities!

This class is part of the DIY Wunderkammer workshop series, curated by Laetitia Barbier and Wilder Duncan for Morbid Anatomy as a creative and pluridisciplinary exploration of the Curiosity Cabinet. The classes will focus on teaching ancient methods of specimen preparation that link science with art: students will create compositions involving natural elements and, according to their taste, will compose a traditio
nal Victorian environment or a modern display. More on the series can be found here.

Wilder Duncan is an artist whose work puts a modern-day spin on the genre of Vanitas still life. Although formally trained as a realist painter at Wesleyan University, he has had a lifelong passion for, and interest in, natural history. Self-taught rogue taxidermist and professional specimen preparator, Wilder worked for several years at The Evolution Store creating, repairing, and restoring objects of natural historical interest such as taxidermy, fossils, seashells, minerals, insects, tribal sculptures, and articulated skeletons both animal and human. Wilder continues to do work for private collectors, giving a new life to old mounts, and new smiles to toothless skulls.

Laetitia Barbier is the head librarian at The Morbid Anatomy Library. She is working on a master's thesis for the Paris Sorbonne on painter Joe Coleman. She writes for Atlas Obscura and Morbid Anatomy.

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A Fate Worse Than Death: The Perils of Being a Famous Corpse with Bess Lovejoy, Author of Rest in Pieces
With Bess Lovejoy, author of Rest in Pieces
Date: Friday, April 26th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy & Phantasmaphile

Most of us know what our afterlives are going to be like: eternity in the ground, or resting in an urn on some relative’s mantelpiece. If we’re lucky, our children might occasionally bring us flowers or a potted plant, and that’s about as interesting as things are going to get.

Not so the famous deceased. For millennia, they’ve been bought and sold, worshipped and reviled, studied, collected, stolen, and dissected. They’ve been the star attractions at museums and churches, and used to found cemeteries, cities, even empires. Pieces of them have languished in libraries and universities, in coolers inside closets, and in suitcases underneath beds. For them, eternity has been anything but easy.

The more notable or notorious the body, the more likely it is that someone’s tried to disturb it. Consider the near-snatching of Abraham Lincoln, or the attempt on Elvis’s tomb. Then there’s Descartes, who is missing his head, and Galileo, who is spending eternity without his middle finger. Napoleon’s missing something a bit lower, as is the Russian mystic Rasputin, at least if the rumors are true. Meanwhile, Jesse James has had three graves, and may not have been in any of them, while it took a court case and an exhumation to prove that Lee Harvey Oswald was in his.
In this illustrated lecture, Bess Lovejoy will draw on her new book, Rest in Pieces, to discuss the many threats faced by famous corpses--from furta sacra ("holy theft" of saintly relics), to skull-stealing phrenologists, "Resurrection Men" digging up cadavers for medical schools, modern organ harvesters, the depredations of crazed fans, and much more.

Rest in Pieces will also be available for sale, and wine will be served in celebration of its release.

Bess Lovejoy is a writer, researcher, and editor based in Seattle. She writes about dead people, forgotten history, and sometimes art, literature, and science. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Believer, The Boston Globe, The Stranger, and other publications. She worked on the Schott’s Almanac series for five years. Visit her at BessLovejoy.com.

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Class: The Victorian Art of Hair Jewelry with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann 
Date: Sunday, June 2
Time: 12-4 PM
Admission: $75
***Must pre-order tickets here: http://victorianmourningjewelry.bpt.me
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academ

Hair jewelry was an enormously popular form of commemorative art that began in the late 17th century and reached its zenith during the Victorian Era. Hair, either of someone living or deceased, was encased in metal lockets or woven to enshrine the human relic of a loved one. This class will explore a modern take on the genre.

The technique of "palette working" or arranging hair in artful swoops and curls will be explored and a variety of ribbons, beads, wire and imagery of mourning iconography will be supplied for potential inclusion. A living or deceased person or pet may be commemorated in this manner.

Students are requested to bring with them to class their own hair, fur, or feathers; all other necessary materials will be supplied. Hair can be self-cut, sourced from barber shops or hair salons (who are usually happy to provide you with swept up hair), from beauty supply shops (hair is sold as extensions), or from wig suppliers. Students will leave class with their own piece of hair jewelry and the knowledge to create future projects.
Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany and Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art and Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled Hairy Secrets:... In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock. 
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You can find out more on all events hereSource:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/03/tom-thumb-taxidermy-hair-art-and-bat.html

Cimitero delle Fontanelle and "The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead" or "The Neapolitan Skull Cult" of Naples, Italy

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Whilst in Naples recently, I spent many hours exploring and photographing the enigmatic and fascinating Cimitero delle Fontanelle, epicenter of what is known as "The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead," or "The Neapolitan Skull Cult." In this vast underground ossuary you will find, among the usual piles of bones, tiny stuctures--some with text engraved, others draped in rosaries and embellished with prayer cards--enshrining chosen skeletal bits. To the uninitiated, their meanings are unclear.
One invaluable source in trying to decipher the meaning here was the work of author/scholar/photographer Paul Koudounaris of Empire of Death fame; he explains the cult thusly in his Fortean Times article "Sisterhood of the Skulls" (excerpted below; click here to read article in its entirety):

...One of [Naples'] greatest enigmas was a strange cult, composed almost exclusively of elderly women who communed with the dead, lavishing their attention on, and even making offerings to, human skulls.

The cult was centred on a cemetery known as the Fontan­elle... A curious cult dedicated to the remains began to evolve around the site, especially after 1872. In that year, Father Gaetano Barbati had large deposits of bones exhumed, and the skulls were cleaned and placed on racks or in troughs, where they took on the role of devotional items for this death-obsessed group. There was no formal organisation to this cult, but it rapidly grew popular with older women, especially widows or those with little or no family. They claimed to receive messages from the deceased in their dreams, and would then “adopt” whichever skull they believed had belonged to the spirit that had contacted them, becoming in effect a kind of caretaker of not just the remains but also the soul of the dead person. They would clean and care for their skulls, even constructing engraved marble shrines for them. These boxes might enclose a single skull, or multiples if the same person adopted more than one.

Cult devotees would bring flowers and gifts as offerings for their chosen crania, and address them by name. The dead at the Fontanelle were of course anonymous, but this army of old ladies claimed the skulls would reveal their true names to their benefactors. In return for this doting care, the deceased would grant favours to their devotees, who would petition the skulls for assistance in a variety of forms – through dreams, direct conversation, various forms of telepathy, or by writing their requests on small slips of paper, which would be rolled up and inserted into the skulls’ eye sockets.

The shrines in which adherents housed their adopted charges were frequently inscribed with messages thanking the skulls for various favours or services; usually the inscriptions were simple, something along the lines of “Per Grazie Recev­uta” (thanks for what was given). But they could be more elaborate, even containing names. The inscribed names were not those of the deceased, however, but rather those of the skulls’ benefactors. Th
e devotees were highly possessive of their skulls, and the shrines were not intended solely to show gratitude to the deceased, but also to mark a specimen as having been adopted, a sign to potential rivals that they should find their own skull and not commune with remains which were already spoken for. Some of the boxes even included doors with locks and chains, as some people didn’t want anyone else to be able even to look upon their skulls...

The members of the “necrophiliac” group based on the Fontanelle were not so interested in these more orthodox types of religious sentiment, however. Their devotions were primarily inspired by a different and surprising mechanism: lottery numbers. One might beseech the dead for any number of favours, but the typical requests made of the skulls at the Fontanelle, on which all this devotion was lavished, centred on an obsessive desire for precognition of winning lottery numbers...

The aid of the bones would also be beseeched when family and friends were ill, or to help with various dom­estic problems. One skull, considered to be “public property,” was understood to aid infertile women. Young women who could not bear children were encouraged to come to the cemetery and caress it – with the consequence that it became the most smoothly polished skull in the ossuary, as generat­ions of women rubbing it over in the hopes of getting pregnant left it, even today, with an almost supernatural sheen. Another skull is enshrined in a box inscribed with the owner’s thanks, and the date “6 September, 1943”. In fact, that was the date of the heaviest allied bombing of Naples in the war. During air raids, the Fontanelle became a makeshift bomb shelter, especially for devotees of the site who found strength and hope in the presence of their adopted skulls. As the bombs fell on 6 September, someone apparently begged a particular skull for protection, and attributed her own survival to its powers, rewarding it with a shrine.... 

As far as the Roman Catholic Church was concerned, the cult based on the Fontanelle was wholly unacceptable. If this was all just superstition, it had degenerated into a form of heathen fetishism, and if any of the stories about mysterious occult happenings were true then it was something even worse. The Church became convinced that the place would have to be shut down; the only surprise is that, perhaps fearing a local backlash, it took them until 1969 to actually do it, when Card­inal Corrado Ursi ordered the premises perm­anently closed. The Fontanelle languished after its closure, and by now most of the devotees of the site have passed on and become what they once adored. For brief periods, it has been open for tourism, but even that is no longer permitted, and it now receives few visitors – mostly just scholars and VIPs. “But we do get some Satanists who break in and hold Black Masses down here, and we have to chase them out,” Alamaro acknowledges...

Another source for getting deeper into this enigmatic practice--especially the pagan/Catholic aspects, which particularly intrigued me-- was the article "The Fontanelle Cemetery and the Skull Cult in Contemporary Naples," sent to me by Sicilian anthropologist Dario Piombino-Mascali, his co-contribution (with Albert Zink) to the exhibition catalog Schädelkult: Kopf und Schädel in der Kulturgeschichte des Menschen. Following is an excerpt from that article via Google Translate (from the German); I did my best to streamline the text into something readable; when I was not sure of the meaning, I kept the original Google Translated text in quotes.

In the Campania region of Italy, traces of a cult with roots in pre-Christian beliefs has been preserved. The so called Skull Cult is a merger of the ancient with the Catholic religion; it exists independently of the official faith, with its own principles and values. Every Monday--a day once dedicated to Hecate, goddess of the moon and mistress of the underworld--believers descend to the tombs and ossuaries of the city. The process is a vestige of pagan heritage.
The most obvious manifestation of this takes place at the Fontanelle Cemetery, located in an ancient tuff mine in the historic Sanità district, very close to a pagan and later Christian Cemetery...

Visitors to the Fontanelle Cemetery these days are touched by the immense quantity of bones and skulls, or capuzzelle in the Neapolitan dialect. There are the human remains, the cult of the skull, the culto delle capuzzelle, the Fontanelle Cemetery and at other Tombs of the city alive.

These anonymous skulls embody the idea of ??the the souls in purgatory, whose worship is a Neapolitan folk rite is of great importance. Believers think of them as mediating between the world of the here and the hereafter. Prayers are dedicated to the abandoned souls, popularly called le Anime Pezzentelle, in order to alleviate their pain, in exchange for promises of a returned help to the prayer. The believer thus concludes with the anima pezzentella an agreement that compassion and obligations to the other presupposes and is based on a shared sense of still determines the actions of the Neapolitans.

Anonymous Souls to help make as if it is their own nationals would act, they are in fact the male morti, the poor Dead, where the faithful allow refrisco - a relief from their suffering through prayer. It is generally noted that the skull cult always begins the same way: a worshipper chooses her soul of a dead person "Intercessor on earth made by him in a dream and the will Situation of the skull inside the cemetery reveals " In this way will create a physical adoption of the capuzzella instead. The phenomenon of skull adoption occurs first between the two world wars; the skull is cleaned placed in display cases that range from boxes to fruit boxes or cookie jars from. The skull is treated as care and prayer objects, in turn, promised the believer grace, prayers or even luck.

In the showcases were also messages and "Votivbildchen", a process that very close to the veneration of saints occurs. Oral sources suggest that the skull cult began in 1709 after the body of the Holy Candida, an early Christian martyr from Naples, was buried together with the remains of another anonymous and forgotten "geratenen" found early Christians. While the souls of the heavenly spheres were traditionally considered unreachable, those in purgatory was perceived as relatively close, as purgatory represented the lowest level on the way to paradise and therefore nearer the earthly sphere. By worshiping the anonymous skull a direct contact with death was attempted. "Worship cult that was the foundation of a Community Ethics and solidarity with the most vulnerable in society." On Earth, the needy were the lively correspondence with the Le Anime Pezzentelle, as in the case of the so-called poor St. Januarius, the patron saint of Naples, who had the task of accompanying funeral processions. Thus, a connection between  the living and the dead were created, by their common traits "Ausgegrenztsein her and her neediness" - the disinherited of this world to which deputies are allowed to ask for help from those in the next life

"The skull, or capuzzelle, are symbolic of individuals who died a cruel death. It is therefore likely that men who dies in the plague most worshiped. In 1685 Father Domenico D'Alessandro writes from Dominican order, nothing more solvent from divine wrath as the failure to assistance to the souls in purgatory. It is therefore necessary, both to souls in purgatory to gain relief and the poor of the earth to give alms, for the the latter are, as already mentioned, the deputy for the dead."

If y
ou want to know more, you can visit the Morbid Anatomy Library to spend some good time with the wonderful book/exhibition catalog Schädelkult: Kopf und Schädel in der Kulturgeschichte des Menschen, recently donated by longtime friend of the library Ryan Matthew Cohn. If you are in and around London, I also invite you to come out on June 10th to see filmmaker Chiara Ambrosio speak on the Neapolitan Cult of the Dead as part of the lecture series I am organizing at The Last Tuesday Society taking place this June and July; more her lecture here, and on the entire series here. You can also read Paul Koudounaris' entire article "Sisterhood of the Skulls" by clicking here, or check out his invaluable (and beautiful) book Empire of Death by clicking here.

All photos are my own; you can see many more images from the Cimitero delle Fontanelle by clicking here or here.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/03/cimitero-delle-fontanelle-and.html

Museo di Anatomia Patologica dell’Universitá degli Studi di Firenze : Italy Trip Guest Post by Evan Michelson, TV’s "Oddities" and Morbid Anatomy Library

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Following, please find one more guest post in which Evan Michelson (2nd photo, right hand side) of "Oddities" fame documents our recent trip through Italy researching the history of the preservation and display of the human corpse.
Here, her response to the amazing Florence pathology museum, or the "Museo di Anatomia Patologica dell'Universitá degli Studi di Firenze"; interestingly, the fine and senstivie pathological waxes you see here were made in the early 19th century by the la Specola workshop, which also brought us Clemente Susini's unforgettable Anatomical Venuses:

The Museo di Anatomia Patologica dell'Universitá degli Studi di Firenze is a happy example of a newly-renovated, early anatomical collection that has been well loved and cared for. The waxes, osteological preparations and wet specimens are all housed in their original, highly ornamental wood and glass display cases, making the place seem more like a treasury than a didactic collection of pain, healing and preserved suffering. Indeed some of the small, ornately jarred specimens, with their delicately handwritten labels are nearly indistinguishable from sacred relics.

The history of this collection goes back to 1824, with the founding of the Medical Society in Florence. It was always intended as a teaching tool for the medical students at the university, and the wax models here are some of the most beautiful examples of the ceroplast's art. The casts were individually commissioned by the anatomy professors and executed by some of the most renowned wax workers of Florence. The result is a 3D catalogue of benign and cancerous tumors, burns, venereal infections, abnormal growths and congenital birth defects, all rendered with the greatest loving care and verisimilitude. The full-sized wax leper could be a saint in any church, his suffering as profound as any wax Christ.

Our guide Gabriella Nesi (2nd image, left; a professor of pathology who has taken the museum under her wing) was particularly eager to point out the models of before-and-after facial reconstructive surgeries, which demonstrated the progress of 19th century plastic surgery by recording not only the sutures and healing wound sites, but the more subtle details like post-surgical stubble on a shaved head. The results are strangely intimate, and we were surprised to learn that many of these models were not only cast from actual patients, but that the museum still has most of the case histories. It is rare to know the story behind any given wax medical model - once a thing has a name, it all becomes unavoidably real.

Although the wax models themselves are breathtaking, it was the presentation of some of the smaller waxes, housed in delicate paper and glass boxes, that drew our attention. These preparations, although clearly intended for a scientific audience, utilize the decorative, visual language of spiritual offerings. Indeed, many of the wax modelers of the 19th century functioned in both the religious and the didactic realm, and the result is a transcendent form of visual art that straddles the spiritual and the scientific, lending the anatomy itself an air of great mystery.

You can find out more about the museum by
clicking here; you can see more photos by clicking here or here. You can read future posts by Evan both on this blog and on her Facebook page, which you will find by clicking here. All photographs are my own. Click on images to see larger version.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/03/museo-di-anatomia-patologica.html

Dream Shop: Nautilus Antiques, Modena, Italy

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Above are a few photos from Evan and I's recent pilgrimage (and, in Evan's case, epic buying trip) to the wonderful Nautilus Antiques of Modena, Italy. This shop--which had us enrapt for over an hour-- felt a bit like what I imagine Obscura Antiques might look like if it had easy access to the European antiquities such as skull reliquaries, wunderkammer trinkets, ancient taxidermy, and medical museum discards.

In the top image, you can see my travel companion Evan Michelson posing with Alessandro Molinengo, co-owner of Nautilus and recent guest poster to this blog (post 1, post 2); the second image down features Fausto Gazzi, his business partner. Both are posing with a favorite artifact for sale in the shop; in Alessandro's case, a taxidermied freak pig preparation and, in Fausto's case, a wax mannequin head by, in his own words, "the Michelangelo of mannequins" Pierre Himans. All other images are installation shots of the shop.

You can find out more about Nautilus by clicking here; you can "like" the shop on Facebook by clicking here. The shop is open on Saturdays from 3 until 7 PM or by appointment, and is located at via Cesare Battisti 60 in Modena, Italy.

All images are my own. You can see more images by clicking here; Click on image to see larger, more detailed version.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/03/nautilus-antiques-modena-italy.html

"History And Cultural Representations Of Human Remains," Symposia Series, London and Paris, 2013

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I just learned of two wonderful looking symposiums taking place this year as part of a three-part series called "History And Cultural Representations Of Human Remains," organised by the CAS research centre (EA 801) in collaboration with the Toulouse Natural History Museum and in partnership with the Academy of Medicine (Paris), the Hunterian Museum (Museums and Archives, Royal College of Surgeons, London), the Center Alexandre Koyré and FRAMESPA (UMR 5136). The second one, entitled "Anatomical Models," will take place April 4 at the Academy of Medicine in Paris; the third one, entitled "Exhibiting Human Remains," will take place at London's Hunterian Museum on June 4th. They both look excellent! Sadly, we missed the first of the series, which took place in Toulouse on Feb. 4th and was called "Medical Museums and Anatomical Collections."

Full details on both remaining symposia follow; hope to see you at one or both!

Anatomical Models
Academy of Medicine - Paris
April 4, 2013

  • 9.00-9.15 : Welcome speech
  • 9.15-10.00 : Rafael Mandressi (CNRS, Centre Alexandre Koyré), Artificialisations du corps dans la première modernité européenne
  • 10.00-10.30 : Jack Hartnell (Courtauld Institute of Art, London), Anatomical Image as Anatomical Model: Evoking Skin and Surgery in a Tactile Anatomical Scroll
  • 10.30-11.00 : Marieke Hendriksen (University of Groningen), The Fabric of the Body: Textile in Anatomical Models and Preparations
  • 11.00-11.30 : Coffee break
  • 11.30-12.00 : Jean-Louis Fischer (CNRS), Les cires de foetus humains du Musée de la Specola : Une modélisation unique du dogme de la préexistence des germes
  • 12.00-12.30 : Margaret Carlyle (MacGill University, Canada), Manikins, Midwives, Medical Men: Obstetrical Hardware in the Paris Medical Marketplace, c. 1750-c.1789
  • 12.30-14.00 : Lunch Break 
  • 14.00-14.30 : Victoria Diehl (Spanish National Research Council), The Iconographic Catholic Legacy of Clemente Susini’s Anatomical Venus
  • 14.30-15.00 : Nike Fakiner (Spanish National Research Council), Impressions in wax: Alexander von Humboldt and Gustav Zeiller’s Anatomical Wax Models
  • 15.00-15.30 : Mechthild Fend (University College London), Contagious Contacts: The Dermatological Moulage as Indexical Image
  • 15.30-16.00 : Coffee break
  • 16.00-16.30 : Anna Maerker (King’s College London), Models and Performance in Leicester Square and the Strand, 1831-32
  • 16.30-17.00 : Birgit Nemec (University of Vienna, Department for the History of Medicine), Modelling the Human – Modelling Society. Anatomical Models in late 19th- and early 20th-Century Vienna and the Politics of Visual Cultures

Exhibiting Human Remains
Hunterian Museum - London
June 4, 2013

  • 10.00-10.45 : Sam Alberti (Hunterian Museum), Collecting the Dead
  • 10.45-11.15 : Nausica Zaballos (EHESS, Paris), Fear of death and body snatchers on the reservation: the corpse as a mediating figure between settlers and Navajo people
  • 11.15-11.45 : Coffee break 
  • 11.45- 12.15 : David Mazierski (University of Toronto), Vanitas Mundi: The Anatomical Legacy of Frederik Ruysch
  • 12.15-12.45 : Adrian Young (Princeton University, USA), Man Ape or Ape Man? Raymond Dart, the Taung Child, and the Rhetorics of Display at the 1925 British Empire Exhibition 12.45-14.00 : Lunch break
  • 14.00-14.30 : David Punter (University of Bristol), The Abhuman Remains of the Gothic
    14.30-15.00 : Laurence Talairach-Vielmas (University of Toulouse II-Le Mirail/Centre Alexandre Koyré), Bottled Specimens in Victorian Literature 
  • 15.00-15.30 : Peter M. McIsaac (German and Museum Studies, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, USA), More than Shock Value: Gestures of Exposure in Gottfried Benn’s Morgue Cycle
  • 15.30-16.00 : Coffee break
  • 16.00-16.30 : Fiona Pettit (University of Exeter), Monstrous Specimens: The Conflation of Medical and Popular Exhibitions of Rare Anatomies
  • 16.30-17.00 : Gemma Angel (University College London), Displaying the Self: The Tattoo from Living Body to Museum Collection

For registration and information: email talairac [at] univ-tlse2.fr and rafael.mandressi [at] damesme.cnrs.fr.

Special thanks to Mechthild Fend--who will participate in the April event--for letting me know about this!

Image: "Royal College of Surgeons, Court of Examiners," Henry Jamyn Brooks, 1894Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/03/history-and-cultural-representations-of.html

The Vampire Diaries Sneak Peek: You Can’t Hate Me

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In a sneak peek from next week' Vampire Diaries, Klaus tells Caroline she can't hate him.

Pretty sure she can and does at the moment, Nik. But we do sort of see your point too.

After the crushing letter Caroline received from Tyler at the end of "Bring It On" (see our latest Vampire Diaries review), the Original vampire is persona non grata as far as she's concerned.

When he shows up unannounced, the greeting he receives isn't exactly warm. When he explains that Tyler was trying to kill him and he did what he had to do, Caroline is still unmoved.

So what's he even doing there anyway? It turns out that Stefan invited him over, because of a much bigger problem all of them have on their hands - one they need Klaus' help with.

What do you think Stefan has in mind? Watch the clip and comment below ...

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/03/the-vampire-diaries-sneak-peek-you-cant-hate-me/

American Horror Story Season 3 To Be Titled…

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Prepare yourselves, TV Fanatics, for American Horror Story: Coven.

Ryan Murphy and company closed down PaleyFest 2013 last night with the reveal of the Season 3 title, along with other scoops and tidbits related to that drama's return to FX this fall.

Bates. Lange

Look for the series - which brings back Jessica Lange in the main role and will also feature Kathy Bates as her character's arch rival - to be set and filmed in modern day New Orleans.

"The fun thing is researching what are the really haunted places in America, and we have a couple doozy locales," Murphy said, adding that Bates will portray a "bad, bad woman."

Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, Frances Conroy, Sarah Paulson and Taissa Farmiga are also confirmed for Season 3, which will focus on "a lot of things," the creator teased - but will also keep coming back to its leads:

“I wanted to see a lot of scenes of Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates going at it, so that’s what you’re going to see.”

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/03/american-horror-story-season-3-to-be-titled/

Worst Cooks in America Exclusive: One-on-One with Alina Bolshakova

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Alina Bolshakova is alive and very well on Worst Cooks in America.

This Latvia native and Los Angeles resident is one of three Team Bobby members still competing for the title on The Food Network's Worst Cooks in America.

Worst Cooks in America Picture

A caretaker for the elderly, Alina was inspired to try out for the show in order to properly cook for her diabetic patient.

What has been the most challenging aspect of the competition so far?

"Butchering a chicken with the head still on," Alina tells our friends at Food Fanatic. "I actually never even took the head off. I just couldn't do it. I tried to raise that butcher knife to take the head off and...I just couldn't do it. I think I covered it with a kitchen towel and just kept going. It was not like going to the store, buying a real chicken all cut up with no trauma!"

Visit Food Fanatic now for more of this exclusive interview with Alina Bolshakova.

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/03/worst-cooks-in-america-exclusive-one-on-one-with-alina-bolshakov/

Blue Bloods Review: Karma’s Bucket List

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The truth is that no one leaves this world with "No Regrets" but Erin's friend Trevor was certainly trying to wipe out a few of his before he left. 

A Series of Random Acts

When the bodies started piling up around the city they appeared to be a case of random acts of violence. As Henry told the kids at Sunday family dinner in this Blue Bloods quote…

Henry: Nothing scares a cop more than a nut who keeps killing for no reason. | permalink

That's one of the great things about the Reagan family dinners. There are very few topics that are off limits.  Cases, politics, religion, it all comes up and is discussed and debated.  Thankfully even when the conversation turns to murder there's enough underlying humor to keep it from becoming completely maudlin as when Jamie and Erin tried their best to be supportive of Danny…

Jamie: It's not like you don't have any experience with crazy people
Erin: You grew up in a house full of them. | permalink

I had mixed feelings about Trevor's bucket list.  It's not that his victims hadn't slipped through the system but should he have had the final say on their fate?  

And I had to feel for Danny.  He's had lousy luck lately talking people down. Last week the guy failed to heed Danny's warnings and decided to go out in a hail of bullets.  This week Trevor decided to take his own life in front of Danny.  How many of those instances can Danny take before it starts to back up on him?

Jamie's case basically blew up in his face as he tried to do the right thing.  How scared must that little boy have been of his parents fighting to have run from his own home and out into the street?

But the mother's secret was bound to come out eventually.  How many plumbing issues can one apartment have?

Frank's friend was just a mess.  He lied to Frank. He walked out on his family. His ego and his alcoholism were ruining his life.  

Pete was darn lucky his ex-wife was even still willing to talk to him. Despite the way he left, she still seemed to care.  So did Frank, although he wanted more from his friend than a simple apology. He wanted to put Pete back on the right path.  Unfortunately it's up to Pete whether or not he takes it.

In the end there were no easy days for anyone in the Reagan family but I felt the worst for Danny as he had to give his sister the heartbreaking news about her friend.  Hopefully the Reagans have some good Karma coming their way soon.

 

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/03/blue-bloods-review-karmas-bucket-list/

Grimm Review: Code Breakers

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"Natural Born Wesen" was a return to procedural form for Grimm, but it also explored the scope of the Wesen world while doing so.

Munroe In the Middle

Monroe’s interactions with his fellow Wesen in the dive bar, and in general, is always an entertaining situation. The poor guy just seems to get along better with humans and the mild mannered Wesen (although he certainly knows how to protect himself) than with the more aggressive Wesen.

These interactions shed some light on Monroe’s own conflicting viewpoints, as he played with a Grimm as well as with Wesen tradition and culture. It’s an idea that isn’t always played around with on Grimm since Nick is usually the one with competing identities.

Nevertheless, Monroe’s continual support of Nick is truly admirable because the perks of being Nick’s sidekick and ally, at this point in time, is mostly one sided. He’s always putting his neck out for him – and while Nick definitely sparks Monroe’s morality and courageousness that just wasn’t there for his reformation – and I’m hoping Monroe begins to have a better give and take with Nick since it feels like Nick is taking him for granted.

One of the best aspects of tonight was how far the boundaries of the Wesen world stretched. In other words, since Renard and Nick’s tentative truce, more of the inner workings of the Wesen world are coming to light. And it’s surprising how much clout Rosalee herself has in this world.

One of Grimm’s greatest storytelling abilities is having the advantage of literally showing what is directly underneath the surface of its characters, using it to quickly give the audience a characterization; this technique has been used with Rosalee, but she’s continually breaking out of her meek shell now. This might be due to Nick, like Monroe, but some of it is due to her taking up her family’s business and finding her place in the Wesen world.

She clued DeGroot in on what was happening, and, naturally, Renard sent the pictures of the code breakers so DeGroot knew exactly how to take care of the situation. Renard seems to have his fingers in just about every pie.

Juliette was a little more tolerable here, probably because she was mostly alone dealing with her own issues. Issues, I must say, are a very welcome change of pace. She’s literally trying to traverse her own forgotten memories with Nick. Deep down, Juliette knows what Nick told her in the trailer, and this limbo of no memories and unexplainable feelings for Renard might have been the perfect escape from something that scared her. If she can overcome that fear, then her memories and love for Nick might coming rushing back.

A Few More Other Thoughts:

  • Apartment 214
  • Nick killed Adalind’s Hexenbiest self with some of his blood, why didn’t Renard’s half-Hexenbiest self go floating away too?
  • Thank goodness for Hank’s nutshell recap, things were a little hazy after the ridiculously long break.
  • Nick has the good sense to not put things in drawers that can be opened by anyone, but is hanging the key around his neck a better place?

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/03/grimm-review-code-breakers/

Jim’s Notebook: Dallas, Southland, The Americans and More!

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If you didn’t hear the news already, I’m now the West Coast Editor of TV Fanatic and I’m so excited to be making a home here with my fellow television lovers.

Always feel free to leave a comment here or email me directly (jim@jimhalterman.com) if there are shows or stars you want to see more of. 

This week, my Notebook is jam-packed with behind-the-scenes scoop on your favorite dramas, such as the special opening titles for Monday's Dallas episode, real-life injuries on the Southland set, Matthew Rhys on the action/emotional challenges on The Americans and then love being in the air over at So You Think You Can Dance...

Jim's Notebook

DALLAS We knew the “JR’s Masterpiece” would be a good one... but how about those somber opening credits? How’d that come about? Cynthia Cidre, the executive producer who wrote the episode, said it was fellow EP Michael Robin’s doing: “We watched the teaser and it was very powerful at the morgue and everybody’s face and then the usual main title came on when we were watching the episode and it was wrong and [Robin] immediately was like ‘no, no, this is too bright and happy and we need something else.’"

Robin said he went to the show’s composer, Rob Cairns, with a big request: “’Okay, this is too major and we need something minor. We need something somber and fitting. Not super sad, but just sort of a remembrance.’ And [Cairns] got it and two hours later he sent that track back.”

If you missed the episode, it’s a perfect one to dive back in. You can watch it at TNT’s Dallas website. 

SOUTHLAND One of the best moments of this week’s “Off Duty” took place when Dewey (C. Thomas Howell) and Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) chased a perp and we came upon Dewey slumped to the ground, with no idea what happened to him for a quick but scary moment.

Said Regina King, who directed the hour: “That scene with Tommy, he was supposed to have that heart attack on camera but when we were doing the chase scene, [Howell] actually tweaked his ankle and couldn’t walk. We hadn’t finished the chase scene so I just went into crisis management mode and started looking at the extras and found one who looked like Tommy from the back and hair and makeup made sure he had salt & pepper [hair], put him in a cop suit and filmed him running. Then I decided to just change it so we don’t know what happened, which actually everybody said turned out better. It made it more mystical.”

Mystical indeed! I’ll have more scoop from my set visit to hype next Wednesday’s episode so keep an eye out for that.

John Ross Mourns J.R.Cooper's Former Boot

THE AMERICANS Who knew great actors like Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell could kick some serious ass on their hit FX series?!?? I asked Rhys earlier in the week which is tougher: the emotional or the physical parts of the role?

“I actually have a magnificent stunt double,” the Welsh actor said. “I just wish he could do the same with the emotional stuff. The draw of the part was always the emotional stuff; that sort of incredibly complex relationship you find them at.  Sort of steering that emotional voyage has been for want of a better pretentious cliché, has been this sort of hard element to it all.”

And while he also said the action scenes are a welcome break from the emotional stuff, will Rhys’s Phillip and Russell’s Elizabeth get their relationship in order by the end of The Americans Season 1?

“I don’t think the resolution is quite possible given what they’ve been through and the amount of back and forth, you know the chess game they play with each other where revelation after revelation has come out and the amount of betrayal involved. I don’t think will be resolved overnight and I think that’s sort of the glorious element to it, is that it can’t be a quick fix relationship. There has to be some sort of long road of recovery for it to have any longevity."

SYTYCD You probably know Stephen “tWitch” Boss from his phenomenal dance moves on the Emmy-winning Fox reality series (which will be back for Season 10 in May) or from the big screen in Step Up Revolution - but did you know he’s engaged to fellow SYTYCD-er Allison Holker?

I asked the charismatic tWitch when love actually struck between the two and he told me it took some time: “It was right after the first All-Star Season, which was season 7. All throughout the season we did not speak to each other at all. I always thought she was so beautiful, I’d admired her since Season 2…but at the wrap party of season 7 we literally had a dance and we have been dating ever since and now we’re engaged.”

FYI, if you think you have what it takes to dance with tWitch, Allison and all the other fine dancers on the show, auditions for the new season are making one more stop – Los Angeles on Friday, March 22nd. More details at the SYTYCD website.

That’s a wrap for this week! Anything else you’re dying to know about your favorite show? Leave a comment here or you email me directly at jim@jimhalterman.com. And remember: follow @TVFanatic for all your TV scoop!

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/03/jims-notebook-dallas-southland-the-americans-and-more/

The Vampire Diaries Round Table: "Bring It On"

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The Vampire Diaries returned in a big way with "Bring It On," giving us so much to discuss.

So let's get to it. In our weekly TV Fanatic Round Table, staffers Steve Marsi, Miranda Wicker and Leigh Raines break down the new Elena, Klaus and Hailey, Matt's windfall and much, much more!

Read our answers to the following questions and comment with your own below!

----------------------------------

1. What was your favorite quote or scene from the episode?

Leigh: Damon telling Rebekah to stop looking for the cure. Because he's right and because I'm so over that storyline!!!! "Life sucks when you’re ordinary. And what makes you exactly not like them? You’re a vampire. You take that cure and become human? You’re no one, nothing. Trust me, losing that cure was the best damn thing that ever happened to you." Also Elena's party rocked and I wanted to be there.

Miranda: Because there's something hilarious to me every time we see one of Klaus' horse drawings, I'll go with Hayley critiquing his art. I've been kind of meh about Hayley, but this week with her cutting down Klaus? Loved her.

Steve: "You're whole life revolves around me." 81-episodes-in-the-making BURN!

Vampire Diaries Round Table logo

2. Do you like the new Elena?

Leigh: Um, I don't like new Elena, I LOVE her. For three and a half seasons it's been whiny, victimy Elena. All this bad stuff kept happening to her and it sucked. She also couldn't breathe without a Salvatore bodyguard. She's fun as hell now, I'd hang out with her. As long as I'm not the next Caroline...

Miranda: YES! What's not to love, really? Aside from that whole trying to kill her best friend thing, I mean.

Steve: One thing I do NOT like is the seemingly arbitrary nature of the vampire-vampire sire bond, or how one's humanity can simply be flipped on and off. That said, I could not take my eyes off Nina Dobrev tonight, and not just because she got naked a lot. It was compelling (pun sort of intended) to watch this unpredictable and wild side of her character.

3. Klaus and Hayley: Hot or not (or really, really hot)?

Leigh: Really, really hot. Klaus is so angry all the time, he really needed that tension release, ya know? Phoebe Tonkin is also a hottie. I approve. Two thumbs up.

Miranda: Really, really, really hot. Really. JoMo. The tattoos. I vote we just let him be shirtless from now on.

Steve: Holy hotness. Words fail me so I've just posted the scene below instead. If the goal of this episode was to set these two up for the spinoff and make us excited for it, well played Julie Plec.

4. Elena vs. Caroline for the UFC title, best 2-of-3: Who wins?

Leigh: Caroline may be older and technically stronger but Elena had a strong point when she said that she was trained by Alaric, a.k.a. by the best. Anything paired with Alaric pretty much wins in my book.

Miranda: I'll pull for the underdog and go with Caroline. Elena seems like the cocky ripper douche type, so she'd get overconfident and Caroline would sneak in for the win.

Steve: Elena, 2-1. Caroline is capable of better than we saw last night, but New Elena's ruthless. Unless Care-Bear also finds the off switch, it'd be an uphill battle for her.

5. Favorite unlikely dynamic duo: Klaus/Hayley, Damon/Rebekah, or Stefan/Caroline?

Leigh: Stefan and Caroline are besties at this point so I don't consider them that unlikely. Damon and Rebekah are fairly similar people so same goes for them. I guess by default and recent hotness factor, it's Klaus/Hayley for the win.

Miranda: Damon and Rebekah. No question. Because they're really the only duo on the list who are unlikely.

Steve: Going with Stefan and Caroline, just because I can't quite put my finger on what the writers have in mind for these two. Beyond mutual concern for Elena, how deep is the connection?

6. Is Tyler really gone for good?

Leigh: Yes. And Matt just went from really poor orphan to really rich orphan. I'll miss you Michael Trevino... and your abs.

Miranda: No. Now that Klaus has revealed his master plan of just letting Tyler think he's in danger of dying, once Klaus sails off to the New Orleans sunset, Tyler can come home to Mystic Falls.

Steve: For the immediate future it looks like it, but he clearly yearns for Caroline and I can't imagine there won't be a scenario where they reunite at some point. Just not for a few episodes at least.

7. What is Silas the Blood Bag Bandit's next move?

Leigh: I feel like he's hidden somewhere with Bonnie right now keeping her brainwashed while inhabiting the body of Shane. They are cooking up something creepy and supernatural, no doubt about it! He's probably also trying to find Katherine, because isn't everyone always chasing that bitch for something?

Miranda: Please let it be resurrecting Jeremy so we can see his arms again! But really, finding Katherine. Because everyone always wants to find Katherine.

Steve: Sipping on Blood-tinis with Bon-Bon and working on the massacre that will complete the trifecta. Or getting back in the car to find a new hospital to raid. Six? In one week? Thirsty fool.

8. If Matt just inherited the deed to the biggest house in Mystic Falls, does that mean he can stop working at the Grill?

Leigh: Well unfortunately Tyler didn't wire any money over or leave him a secret account, but I'd be willing to be there's heaps of money hidden in secret places around Lockwood Manor.

Miranda: Unfortunately, no. He may have the house, but now he has to pay for all that upkeep. Poor, poor Matt. Maybe one day he'll make it to manager.

Steve: Unless Leigh is right, the property taxes on that place alone are probably more than his annual Grill earnings. I'd keep those double shifts for the time being if I were Matty.

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/03/the-vampire-diaries-round-table-bring-it-on/

Nikita Review: Because You Say It Is?

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"The Life We've Chosen" were appropriately Ari's last words and summed up the episode well. Though, it could just as easily have been titled for what Alex said, "Because you say it is?" The mission to get Alex back was full of difficult choices and conflict, which likely will stick with the team members.

In the new Division, the management structure is complicated with Ryan running the joint, but both Nikita and Michael are in leadership roles too. Alex's question could have been poised by and to several members of the team throughout the hour. While this new organization is supposed to be better, one area that it lacks is in command and obedience. Perhaps, the lack of blind obedience is a good thing though.

Amanda Is Shocked

Ryan and Nikita often have discussed how they want to do things differently and better this time, but Ryan failed horribly when he decided to put a kill chip in Ari's head. His decision to keep that from everyone but Owen proved that it was wrong. If it was the right thing to do, he would have let the mission team leader and his supposed partner in running Division in on his plan. His arrogance that he knew best jeopardized Nikita and the team. 

First, the kill chip interfered with the mission communications. At least Birkoff was able to overcome this nuisance and it didn't cause any major problems. Second, Nikita figured it out on her own and that caused a conflict that nearly killed them all. The team wasn't at the ready for the ambush and didn't hear Sean warn them while arguing. Both were problematic. 

Even though Ari had the kill chip in his head, he acted to save the whole team and mission. He claimed it was because he didn't want Amanda to win, but I think Nikita standing up for him mattered. They may have been at odds over the years, but he saw Nikita was honorable and willing to risk herself and the team to try and save him.

While the rescue mission was underway, Alex didn't waste any time in trying to escape. She used the medic to distract the guards and they made a run for it. Alex and Nikita aren't that different. They both have a solid moral code and desire to help others. During the escape, the medic was shot protecting Alex. That only heightened the sense of responsibility Alex felt for her.

During Amanda and Nikita's reunion, Amanda warned Nikita that Alex would turn on her. Now, that Alex was under Amanda's control, she took advantage of the opportunity to plant doubts into the young spy's head. Amanda's psychological warfare is how she is able to hurt people the most. And, it may be how she is able to cause Nikita the most pain.

After the Alex and Ari exchange, I was disappointed in what happened next. It came across as too contrived and easy. Alex isn't simpleminded such that she would fall for Amanda's mind games like that. Plus, with Sean there, he should have stopped Alex rather than let down the team. Time was a crucial consideration though and Nikita and Alex took off separately before a real conversation ever took place. 

The decision to split up caused both teams to fail in their mission. Ari escaped from Amanda with the black box only to be shot in the back before Nikita could cover him. If the full team had been there, Ari would have lived. And, Alex was not able to fend off the soldiers greater force to save the medic. The only victory was that all the Division assets came back alive and with the black box.

That victory was all that Ryan saw when he complimented Nikita and Alex on a job well done. He didn't take time to notice the fractures that his decisions and the mission caused within the team. Michael and Nikita had it out over the kill switch. And, the current relationship between Nikita and Alex is unknown.

I worry for what will happen to Alex next. She doesn't trust Nikita right now and Sean is in the perfect situation to push the two women even further apart. It would be a shame if Amanda's words get inside Alex's head and then if that is compounded with Sean's negativity surrounding Nikita and Division. Will Sean use this situation to isolate Alex, so he can have her all to himself? 

I hope that my worries are unfounded and that Alex will recognize Amanda's manipulation and work things out with Nikita. When it comes down to it, someone has to be the team leader and if the leader's directions aren't followed lives are lost. That was shown both through disobeying Ryan regarding the kill chip and then when the four person team split up. Though, there is a key distinction between the two situations.

Nikita was kept out of the loop on the kill chip, which was an even bigger mistake. Out in the field, trust is probably the most important thing. Ryan betrayed not only Nikita's trust, but the vision they set for the new Division. 

Will the Division team be able to overcome the fractures that developed through this mission? Or, will the fractures become full breaks? I really hope it's the former because it would be too much to handle otherwise.

Odds and Ends

  • Finally, Amanda fixed her horrid hair. It looked so gorgeous in this episode.
  • It's a slippery slope and Ryan has slid down it. Will Ryan learn from his mistake? Or, will the kill chip be just one more step to him becoming Percy II?
  • Glad to see that Owen's conversation with Alex in the car wasn't entirely forgotten. Sean doesn't like Owen, but that's okay. Their tension is fun to watch.
  • Ari: If you die, Amanda wins and to quote your eloquence, "Screw Amanda." | permalink
  • Ari was a foe for so long that is was a shock to me that I teared up when he died. He didn't make up for all his wrongs, but it was an honorable death. And, he did get the black box.
  • Ryan: Activating that kill chip is the only smart course of action.
    Nikita: I can't do that. We don't make that choice. We aren't that kind of Division. | permalink
  • Birkhoff: Scan's all clear. No hidden bombs or gas pouches. I guess Amanda knew better than to turn you into a party pinata. | permalink
  • While Amanda didn't plant anything physical in Alex, she definitely planted doubt about Nikita.

Source:
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/03/nikita-review-the-life-weve-chosen/

From 18th Century Private Natural History Cabinet to Early Museum: The Spallanzani Museum, Reggio Emilia, Italy; Guest Post by Alessandro Molinengo, Nautilus Shop, Modena

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Friend Alessandro Molinengo, co-proprietor of the Modena's amazing Nautilus Antiques, brought Evan Michelson and I one rainy night to visit to Spallanzani Museum in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The origins of this museum stem from a "small collection of natural products" opened by priest, biologist and physiologist Lazzaro Spallanzani in his home in 1770; today, the collection--some still in their original cases!--is located in the Civic Museum of Reggio Emilia.

I asked Alessandro to write a guest post telling the readers of Morbid Anatomy more about this astounding collection, which had Evan and I literally gasping aloud as we turned each corner; All images are my own; you can see many many more by clicking here or here:

Lazzaro Spallanzani (10 January 1729 – 12 February 1799) was an Italian Catholic priest, biologist and physiologist who made important contributions to the experimental study of bodily functions, animal reproduction, and essentially animal echolocation. His research of biogenesis paved the way for the investigations of Louis Pasteur. 
Since 1771 he had managed to create a Museum of Natural History in Pavia, which over the years acquired a great reputation, even internationally, and was even visited by the Emperor Joseph II of Austria. 
In 1785, while on a trip to Constantinople and the Balkans, he was accused by the custodian of the Museum of Pavia (instigated by some colleagues) of stealing artifacts from the museum: the story ended after one year with the demonstration of the complete innocence of Spallanzani and punishment of slanderers. 
His indefatigable exertions as a traveler, his skill and good fortune as a collector, his brilliance as a teacher and expositor, and his keenness as a conversationalist no doubt aided largely in accounting for Spallanzani's exceptional fame among his contemporaries; his letters account for his close relationships with many famed scholars and philosophers, like Buffon, Lavoisier, and Voltaire. 
His life was one of incessant eager questioning of nature on all sides, and his many and varied works all bear the stamp of a fresh and original genius, capable of stating and solving problems in all departments of science. 
He died from bladder cancer on 12 February 1799, in Pavia. After his death, his bladder was removed for study by his colleagues, after which it was placed on public display in a museum in Pavia, where it remains to this day. 
Since 1770, Lazzaro Spallanzani set up in the rooms of his home in Scandiano a "small collection of natural products,"which today is located in the Civic Museums of Reggio Emilia. 
It’s a rare and precious document in the history of collecting naturalistic ranked according to scientific knowledge at the end of the eighteenth century. It includes zoological, with particular reference to marine life, paleontological, mineralogical, lithological and botanical gardens, as well as decorative objects, such as pictures, tables and ornaments, testifying, in its diversity, the variety of interests of the scientist. The materials are the result of purchases, exchanges and collections made during the many trips Spallanzani during the summer months, to conduct scientific experiments, and to procure materials for
the Museum of Natural History of the University of Pavia.
Purchased by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia in 1799, at the death of scientist, collection has been preserved in its original consistency, finding final location in the Palazzo of St. Francis from the 1830. The current layout of the exhibition is related to the reorganization of collections in 1883 by Alfredo Jona, displayed in several cabinets, some of which are original furnishings of the Spallanzani’s house, following the Linnaean system in use in the late eighteenth century.
You can find out more about the by the Spallanzani Museum of Reggio Emilia by clicking here. All images are my own (click on image to see larger versions); you can see many more by clicking here or here. You can find out more about the Nautilus Shop by clicking here, and can "like" the shop on Facebook by clicking here. The shop is open on Saturdays from 3 until 7 PM or by appointment, and is located at via Cesare Battisti 60 in Modena, Italy.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/03/from-18th-century-private-natural.html

Craig Kiefer – Unconventional Artwork for a Conservative Genre

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Craig Kiefer Veteran Pain

Craig Kiefer Asthma

Craig Kiefer Locked In

Craig Kiefer Respiratory Pathways

Craig Kiefer Respiratory Pathways

I had the lovely chance of meeting medical illustrator, Craig Kiefer yesterday at a gallery opening at Design Cloud Chicago. I could immediately see Craig’s energy and passion for his work. He is a fellow alum of the University of Illinois Biomedical Visualization graduate program and runs his own biovisualization studio with Kimberely Martens.

Craig’s work takes an artistic and editorial approach to anatomy using painting combined with digital techniques. He’s able to bridge art with the technical execution of a medical illustrator which is so refreshing to see.

View more of Craig’s work including his awesome Relationship With Nature series at behance.net/craigkiefer!

 

 

 

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/streetanatomy/OQuC/~3/nSdaV_2qMso/

On the Curious Fate of the Body of Lord Byron: Guest post by Bess Lovejoy, Friend and Authoress of "Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses"

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I am incredibly proud of longtime friend and kindred spirit Bess Lovejoy, who, after years of toil, has just published her wonderful book Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses.

Per my request, Bess has kindly adapted the following excerpt for this blog from one of my favorite entries in the book, on the body of Romantic poet Lord Byron. You can find out more about Bess and the book here, and order a copy of your own by clicking here. Also, if you plan to be in or around Brooklyn on April 26, please join us for a special book party/lecture with Ms. Lovejoy at Observatory; Copies of her books will, of course, be available for sale and signing. More on that here.

And now, Ms. Lovejoy on the Curious Fate of the Body of Lord Bryon:

Lord Byron
Born: January 22, 1788 in Dover, England
Died: April 19, 1824 (age 36) in Missolonghi, Greece 

With his extravagant tastes in clothes, his sexual magnetism, and his devotion to the cult of himself, the poet Lord Byron was the first modern celebrity. He even got fan mail: women regularly wrote him letters offering praise and adoration, and sometimes even their own bodies. 

But eventually Byron went too far. After his brief marriage failed miserably, he left Britain in 1816 amidst rumors that he had forced his wife to perform “unnatural acts” and carried on an incestuous affair with his half-sister Augusta. In retreat, he traveled to Switzerland, where he participated in the house party that inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein, and then to Italy, where he sailed with Percy Shelley and bedded Mary’s half-sister Claire. His next adventure was in Greece, where in 1823 he joined that country’s fight for independence from the Ottoman Empire. Byron tried to bolster the disorganized Greek forces, but only a year after arriving, he was confined to his sickbed. The cause, at least according to many modern experts, was malaria contracted in the Greek marshlands. 

His doctors didn’t understand the cause of his illness, and had Byron been given quinine in time, he might have been saved. Instead he was fed castor oil and antimony, and bled repeatedly despite his protests. “Have you no other remedy than bleeding?” he shouted at his physicians, as they pulled pints of blood from his temples and jugular. None of it did any good. Byron died just after six in the evening, as a thunderstorm was breaking over the city. Superstitious locals interpreted the wrath of the heavens as a sign that a great man had died. 

The city of Missolonghi, where Byron’s life ended, was plunged into despair. The morning after his death, 37 guns were fired from a nearby fortress, one for each year of his life. Black-bordered notices distributed throughout the city ordered Easter Week celebrations cancelled, and all non-essential shops and public offices closed. Meanwhile, Byron’s friends debated what to do with his body. 

Throughout his life, the poet had left conflicting wishes. At times he asked to be buried in England, while at other times he refused. In 1819 he’d written to his publisher: “I am sure my Bones would not rest in an English grave—or my Clay mix with the Earth of that Country … I would not even feed your worms—if I could help it.” The day before he died, he declared: “Let not my body be hacked, or be sent to England.” 

Both requests were denied. The doctors who “hacked” Byron’s body with an autopsy found a congested brain, a flabby heart, and a diseased liver. Before stitching him back up, the doctors removed his heart, brain, and other internal organs, placing them in four urns. A mistranslated funeral oration has led to a story that the heart stayed in Greece, but in fact the Greeks got a different set of organs: his lungs and larynx. Pietro Capsali, the man in whose house Byron died, said “we wished to have his lungs and larynx because he had used his breath and voice for Greece.” But the urn with Byron’s lungs disappeared when Missolonghi fell in a Turkish siege two years after the poet’s death.
The British establishment was considerably less reverent than the Greeks. One official said that Byron’s body should be burnt, a message conveyed back to London with multiple exclamation points. However, Byron’s friends decided that the most honorable thing to do was to send the poet back to England, regardless of his wishes. 

When London newspapers heard Byron’s body would be coming to England, they reported on plans for a burial in Westminster Abbey. But the Dean of Westminster, who still remembered the “unnatural acts” scandal of 1816, refused. He told one of Byron’s executors that the best thing to do was “to carry away the body, and say as little about it as possible.” In fact, it would not be until 1969 that church officials finally agreed to a memorial for Byron at Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey. 

Despite the establishment’s cold shoulder, the public still loved their poet. Sir Walter Scott said the news of his death “stunned” the nation, while to a young Tennyson the “whole world seemed to be in darkness.” When the Florida arrived in July 1824 carrying Byron's body (preserved with 180 gallons of spirits), spectators crowded the banks of the Thames.  

With no burial in Westminster Abbey forthcoming, Byron’s executors buried the poet at his family vault in Hucknall Torkard, Nottingham. Byron joined his father “Mad Jack” Byron, grandfather “Foulweather Jack” Byron, and dozens of other relatives with less colorful nicknames. Almost thirty years later, the vault was closed for good following the burial of Byron’s daughter Ada Lovelace.

That is, until it was reopened in 1938 by the local vicar. For that story, see: Rest in Pieces.

Image: Top Image: Painting of Lord Byron; bottom image: Byron and Ada Lovelace's coffin (the one with the coronet on it is hers.)Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/03/on-curious-fate-of-body-of-lord-bryon.html

The Head of Saint Catherine of Siena : Italy Trip Guest Post by Evan Michelson, TV’s "Oddities" and Morbid Anatomy Library

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One more guest post by Evan Michelson of "Oddities" and the Morbid Anatomy Library documenting our trip through Italy researching the history of the preservation and display of the human corpse.

Here, her response to our pilgrimage to see the incorruptible head of Saint Catherine of Siena, seen in my photo above:

Recently Joanna and I paid a visit to the remarkable relic of Saint Catherine of Siena, that city's patron saint. Her incorruptible, mummified head lies behind a screen above an altar in Siena's Basilica of San Domenico. Apparently it was smuggled out of Rome in a sack by her followers, who wished to have her worldly remains reside in the city where she was born. Dramatically lit, her head has weathered the centuries well.

Catherine is one of Italy's most important holy women, known for her vivid and voluminous correspondence with Popes, Kings and various heads of state. She was also a remarkably powerful woman in her time, having served as a political ambassador for Florence (a rarity in the 14th century).

She had taken a vow of celibacy at the age of seven and considered herself a true bride of Christ, having entered into a "mystical marriage" with Jesus while still a teenager. She also suffered from what sounds like anorexia or bulimia for much of her life - obsessively fasting and vomiting until she couldn't eat anything at all, and she died quite young. Catherine was both revered and thought to be something of a dangerous fanatic in her lifetime; believe or disbelieve, her life spent nursing plague victims, pursuing political peace, recording ecstatic visions and reading the minds of her fanatical followers makes for a compelling story.

You can read future posts by Evan both on this blog and on her Facebook page, which you will find by clicking here. The photograph is my own. Click on image to see larger version.Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-head-of-saint-catherine-of-siena.html


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