(2 reviews) Author: ISBN : 9780226520810 New from $24.13 Format: PDFAnna Morandi Manzolini (1714-74), a woman artist and scientist, surmounted meager origins and limited formal education to become one of the most acclaimed anatomical sculptors of the Enlightenment. The Lady Anatomist tells the story of her arresting life and times, in light of the intertwined histories of science, gender, and art that complicated her rise to fame in the eighteenth century.
Examining the details of Morandi’s remarkable life, Rebecca Messbarger traces her intellectual trajectory from provincial artist to internationally renowned anatomical wax modeler for the University of Bologna’s famous medical school. Placing Morandi’s work within its cultural and historical context, as well as in line with the Italian tradition of anatomical studies and design, Messbarger uncovers the messages contained within Morandi’s wax inscriptions, part complex theories of the body and part poetry. Widely appealing to those with an interest in the tangled histories of art and the body, and including lavish, full-color reproductions of Morandi’s work, The Lady Anatomist is a sophisticated biography of a true visionary.
- Hardcover: 248 pages
- Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (December 15, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0226520811
- ISBN-13: 978-0226520810
- Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 7.2 x 10.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
The Lady Anatomist: The Life and Work of Anna Morandi Manzolini PDF
In the gothic thriller _The Mysteries of Udolpho_ (1794), the mysteries consist of distinguishing the real from the supernatural, and one of the scary visions seen by the heroine Emily was a body in grave clothes, being eaten by worms. She really saw it, and the author reflects, "On such an object, it will be readily believed, that no person could endure to look twice." Is it a horrific supernatural vision, or is it a mere waxwork? If you didn't look twice, you could not tell, because waxworks were of a high degree of artistry at the time. In the eighteenth century, Anna Morandi Manzolini made waxworks not to scare people but to educate them in anatomy. Her spectacular creations were in demand in palaces all over Europe, and while she got some acclaim for her work at the time, her position as a woman without formal education meant she did not get all the recognition she deserved. Though she amplified and corrected the work of more famous anatomists of the time, like Valsalva and Malpighi, her name is not in the anatomy hall of fame today. _The Lady Anatomist: The Life and Work of Anna Morandi Manzolini_ (University of Chicago Press) by Rebecca Messbarger offers an appreciation of this remarkable woman, and gives lots of lovely pictures of the anatomical waxworks that made her famous.
Bologna, Italy, was in the eighteenth century a center for anatomical studies. There Anna Morandi was born in 1714. We know almost nothing of her education; how she learned to use Latin or to write scientific treatises with exactitude is a mystery. It is only upon her marriage at twenty six years old to Giovanni Manzolini that she comes into view. Anna Morandi began as an assistant to her husband, and became his equal. When died unexpectedly she took over the business.
This seems to be quite an interesting book, exploring an interesting corner of history which many may not know much about. If I saw it a a used book sale I would definitely pick it up. Those who have studied the trajectory of Benedict XIV for various reasons are aware of his interesting Enlightenment dalliances. For in the context of the entire career of this man, that is all they could possibly be conceived to be: dalliances. Still, it is an extremely good thing that a Pope, any Pope, is being conceptualized as an Enlightenment Pope. You see that is the tag-line of a Conference that is going on as I write this in St. Louis. And this author, Messbarger, was the stimulator of it it seems, judging from her video on the online video site.. And let me stress, the very fact that an International Conference exists to celebrate the Enlightenment aspects of a Pope is a very laudable thing.
But let me comment on this book and the Conference at once. It seems that International Academic Conferences of various sorts are given to the "missing the forest for the trees" tendency. And that includes the one I have attended. But in this case the results of that tendency might be quite dangerous and potentially invalidating. For this Pope was certainly more in the Enlightenment vein than others around the same time. But the crucial point is not nearly as much as many Prince-Archbishops who were very dedicated to those tendencies. Even Mozart's stolid Archbishop of Salzburg was likely vastly more in the Enlightenment vein, with his busts of Voltaire no less in the Archepiscopal residence, than this Pope could have been.
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