Anatomical Venus, wax figure, Florence, Italy.
"Raised as a Roman Catholic, Grand Duke Peter Leopold was taught to condemn human dissection, which the Church Fathers deemed sacrilegious because it stripped the dead of viscera needed for the Last Judgement. But Peter Leopold was an enlightened despot who didn't want subjects to perish at the hands of unpracticed medics. In the early 1770s, the Italian physiologist Felice Fontana offered him a deal he couldn't refuse. In return for a supply of fresh cadavers, Fontana promised to replace human flesh with colored wax.
The technology was already well established. In ancient Greece, sculptors modeled wax to create funeral masks. Known as ceroplastics, the craft was revived in Renaissance Florence, and used to produce realistic-looking votive offerings such as ersatz hands and feet. Artists also introduced wax to religious statuary, often intentionally grotesque, embellished with real hair and teeth to maximize dramatic effect. Even a few anatomists had experience with ceroplastics, wrapping waxwork muscles around real-life skeletons for prolonged surgical study. (It helped that they weren't smelly.) . . .
The historical term for such models is anatomical Venus. Many hundreds were made at the University of Florence under Fontana's supervision with Peter Leopold's patronage. Their anatomical accuracy was ensured by the cadavers provided to Fontana, which were dissected in the presence of sculptors who deftly replicated each part of the body. Because the wax could be cast, the models could be replicated and distributed far and wide. Prior to the invention of color photography, they were deemed the best available representation of human anatomy, optimal for teaching because they sidestepped religious controversy, diminished grave robbery, and averted the gag reflex induced by putrid flesh."
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