Article ID: CBB083461736

The Whiteness of Bones: Sceletopoeia and the Human Body in Early Modern Europe (2022)

unapi

In Western Europe between 1500 and 1700 the human skeleton became an object: a scientific object, a natural object, an artistic object, an artisanal object, independent of its bodily origins yet retaining a troubling moral status. The act of making a skeleton created a scientific object that also had aesthetic value, with qualities of authenticity, accuracy, and whiteness. Beginning with Vesalius, many anatomists included instructions on how to make a skeleton in their anatomical texts, and many more taught their students how to do this. Skeletons became central to anatomical instruction, both for medicine and for art. By the end of the seventeenth century, skeletons increasingly were found in cabinets and collections, and their aesthetic qualities, particularly their whiteness, became critical. However, the emotional and moral impacts of making skeletons remained unspoken.

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Authors & Contributors
Berg, Sara van den
Casali, Elide
Clayton, Martin
Donato, Maria Pia
Jacquart, Danielle
Klestinec, Cynthia
Journals
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Asclepio: Archivo Iberoamericano de Historia de la Medicina
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Medicina nei Secoli - Arte e Scienza
Nature
Micrologus: Nature, Sciences and Medieval Societies
Publishers
Brill
L'Erma di Bretschneider
Neri Pozza
Olschki
Concepts
Anatomy
Human body
Medicine
Dissection
Human anatomy
Medicine and art
People
Vesalius, Andreas
Leonardo da Vinci
Camper, Petrus
Descartes, René
Fabricius, ab Aquapendente
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Time Periods
16th century
17th century
18th century
Renaissance
15th century
Early modern
Places
Europe
Italy
Venice (Italy)
England
Institutions
Venice. Collegio di Medici
University of Padua
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