Posts Tagged ‘Italy’

Madonna Dolorosa, Mater Dolorosa, or Lady of Sorrows: Naples, Italy

Posted on March 23rd, 2012 • Filed under Learn • No Comments

More from Italy, as I sort through my thousands of photographs: I don’t know much about the top piece, but I am guessing it is a 18th or early 19th century Madonna Dolorosa, Mater Dolorosa, or Lady of Sorrows, a popular motif in Naples; we spotted it at one of the many antiques shops we popped into on our trip. The bottom image is my own Madonna Dolorosa, made by the workshop of Giuseppe and Marco Ferrigno, a studio which continues to create–by hand!–fine Baroque-style crèches and terracotta figures of the sort for which Naples is still, rightrully, renowned.

Click on images to see much larger, finer images.

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The Body of San Giovanni Leonardi, Patron Saint of Pharmacists, Rome, Italy

Posted on March 20th, 2012 • Filed under Learn • No Comments

Incorruptible? Effigy? There is definitely some wax involved. The caption next to this figure in his space age crystal coffin read:

Corpo di San Giovanni Leonardi (Diecimo-Lucca 1591-Roma 1609) Fondatore dell’Ordine della Madre di Dio Cofondatore del Collegio di Propaganda Fide, Patrono dei Framacisti.” (Or, as translated by Google, “Body of St. John Leonardi (Diecimo Lucca-1591-Rome 1609) Founder of the Order of the Mother of God, co-founder of the College of Propaganda Fide, Patron of Pharmacists.)

As seen at–if I remember correctly–his shrine at Santa Maria of Campitelli church in Rome. More on this saint can be found here. More from Italy to come very soon.

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Apologies from Italy

Posted on March 14th, 2012 • Filed under Learn • No Comments

My sincere apologies for the lack of postings and emails, and a special thanks to all of those who have so generously sent in recommendations for places to visit. I am still on the road in Italy with only intermittent internet access and days filled to the brim with museums, churches, anatomical theatres, ossuaries and reliquaries. As a teaser, here are a few of the things Evan Michelson and I have been encountering on our trip thus far. Evan has been posting more details than I; you can find them here. I will post more–with details, I promise!– very soon upon my return!

Click on images to see larger versions.

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Off to Italy in Search of the Material History of the Human Corpus with Evan Michelson

Posted on March 5th, 2012 • Filed under Learn • No Comments

I have some very exciting news to report! This evening, my very good friend–and Morbid Anatomy Scholar in residence/Oddities star–Evan Michelson and are absconding to Italy to collect images and data related to a long term project which has long obsessed us both. In Evan’s (very eloquent) words:

We will be exploring the social, spiritual, philosophical and material history of the human corpus from the Early Christian period, through the Enlightenment and into the Early Modern Era. This trip will take us to medical museums, ossuaries, cathedrals and burial grounds in several different cities, and it is the culmination of a lifelong obsession on both our parts.

Italy seems like the logical place to start: home of the Roman Catholic Church and the greatest of the early anatomical artists, it is also the home of the Renaissance – the historical pivot point that brought us from the Dark Ages into the Age of Science. Death in all its mystery has the most profound lessons to impart, and the religious attempt to transcend decay through myth transmuted the body into an object of sensual luxury and splendor. Science reclaimed the corpse, and in doing so gave rise to a different kind of purely mechanical beauty. That transitional moment is the object of our pilgrimage.

So please excuse some predicted silences, and look for reports and updates here! And please, feel free to send suggestions for sites to visit, things to eat, etc. to morbidanatomy[ag]gmail.com.

Ciao for now!

Image: Ercole Lelli’s anatomical waxworks, Bologna, Italy; photo by Joanna Ebenstein

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