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Article ID: CBB083461736

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

Guerrini, Anita (Author)

Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Volume: 96
Issue: 1
Pages: 34-70
Publication date: 2022
Language: English

URI: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/851309

DOI: 10.1353/bhm.2022.0000

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Moral and ethical aspects Anatomy Aesthetics Human body Skeleton 17th century 16th century Europe

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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