̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Paris

Skeletons in the cupboard of medical science

amb206 — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 11:22:00 +0000

Three centuries ago, young men from the British upper classes were sent on the Grand Tour to complete their education and prepare for their futures as cultured members of polite society. Often in the company of tutors, they followed a route that typically took them on a journey across Europe, from Paris to the Mediterranean, where they mingled with other privileged elites, visited sites of cultural and historical importance, and explored natural wonders.

" ̽��ֱ��Europe of the 18th century– the so-called Age of Enlightenment – is in many ways a watershed in cultural and social history,” said Margaret Carlyle, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. “It marks the beginning of modernity in terms of global travel and knowledge exchange, as well as the development of the medical sciences as we know them. ̽��ֱ��Grand Tour undertaken by privileged young men was part of that bigger desire for novel experiences and broadened perspectives.”

On 17 February, Carlyle will give a talk titled ‘Skeletons in the cabinet and the Grand Tour of anatomy’ that will open a window into her research into Enlightenment anatomy. In particular, she will discuss how an upturn in tourism, fuelled by the acquisition of curious specimens (such as skeletons) contributed to anatomy’s growing authority. She will look at the anatomy cabinet as a public-private space where medical learning was created and deployed, and also discuss the tension between curiosity and voyeurism as the limits of what was acceptable (or not) were increasingly pushed in the interests of knowledge.

In museums and galleries throughout the capitals of Europe, young men who embarked on the Grand Tour gazed at artistic representations of the human body in paintings, waxworks, and sculptures. Popular were the ‘Skeletons of Malefactors’ on display at the ̽��ֱ�� of Leiden. Wax figures known as Venuses, found in Felice Fontana’s Florentine workshop, are mentioned in many letters and journals recounting travellers’ formative experiences. Grand tourists may well have also visited brothels where, well away from the confines of home, they would have gained (or expanded on) their early sexual experiences.

Research suggests that many young travellers also went to see smaller and less celebrated museums that displayed representations of human anatomy in the shape of skeletons (obtained by rendering down corpses), pickled body parts, and wax models of the body created to show with detailed accuracy the internal organs.

“My research explores the material side of human anatomy and the variety of spaces where new techniques and forms were developed. ̽��ֱ��ways in which self-proclaimed experts were beginning to develop ingenious ideas for teaching and experimentation are an important part of this story,” said Carlyle. "They can be described as tinkerers or technicians who toiled away in workshops, but they also undertook forms of public outreach that contributed to their growing social authority."

Particularly intriguing is the story of one Mademoiselle Biheron, a middle class Parisian who became famous for her anatomical wax models. Born in 1719, Biheron was a self-trained anatomist and entrepreneur whose museum, or ‘cabinet of curiosities’, in her house near the Sorbonne was an established, if slightly off-beat, stopping point for visitors to the capital. In a craft dominated by men, Mlle Biheron was highly unusual in being a woman.

“At this time, Florence was the centre for wax model making, and Florentine productions were highly sought-after by European aristocrats and royalty. We also know that a couple – the Morandi-Manzolinis – who were making waxworks in Bologna generated a steady flow of tourists. But it’s believed that Mlle Biheron is the only woman in Europe to establish herself independently as a modeller of wax anatomies. This makes her as striking as Mme Tussaud, who became famous in London for her wax models of royalty and celebrities,” said Carlyle.

Little is known about Biheron’s background, or how she acquired her fascination for anatomy or skills as a maker of wax works. But archives show that her display of anatomical models (shown both in her home and taken out to exhibit at learned academies) attracted significant numbers of people motivated by a desire to know more about the inner workings of the human body. Her audience included surgeons, academicians, scientists (then known as natural philosophers), artists and members of the public.

Biheron most likely obtained corpses from hospitals and graveyards, which she stored in glassed-in cabinets in her back garden. Dissections enabled her to observe and examine the parts of the body and with this knowledge she created extremely realistic models of the human body. Anatomists affiliated to the Jardin du Roi (King’s Garden) rendered down corpses on the premises by boiling them up in large vats to extract the bones which were then bleached in the sun and re-assembled as skeletons.

̽��ֱ��vile stench of putrefaction that accompanied such processes (formaldehyde was not developed until the 19th century) was recorded with revulsion by visitors to another anatomist, Joseph-Guichard Duverney. This was at a time when Parisians would have been familiar with the noxious smells of sewage and tanning that are unfamiliar in modern cities.

“Mlle Biheron’s craftsmanship in making anatomically accurate and life-size models of, for example, a pregnant female was described as an astonishing representation. Each model would have taken months if not years to complete. They were fashioned to have cut-aways to reveal specific systems like the digestive tract and parts that you could lift out to handle,” said Carlyle.

“There’s little evidence suggesting that Mlle Biheron faced prejudice on the grounds that she was female. Indeed, it seems that she was held in high regard by contemporaries precisely because she defied expectations of the fair sex. In the early 1770s, she travelled to London where she exhibited what was described as her 'arsenal of wares' to an undoubtedly curious public, in a room close to her lodgings in the Strand. She was also invited to take her exhibits to the Hermitage to show to Catherine the Great but ill health prevented her from making this journey.”

Correspondence reveals that the French writer and philosopher Denis Diderot sent his daughter Marie-Angélique, in advance of her marriage, to see Mlle Biheron in order that she could gain a clearer idea of the male and female anatomies. “In an era when sex education as we know it was rarely discussed, Diderot was highly enlightened in his attitudes. It remains unclear if other young people were also sent to Mlle Biheron for the same purpose, but we do know that her collection included a wax penis and models showing a foetus developing in the womb,” said Carlyle.

Biheron wasn’t alone in offering a novel experience to Parisians and visitors to the capital. Behind the scenes at a natural history museum owned by the wealthy Montpellier aristocrat, Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson, was a back corridor containing adult and foetal skeletons and other daring specimens of human anatomy. Unlike his multi-faceted collection of botanicals, minerals, shells, and animals – which were exhibited to all – De la Mosson hid his collection of human anatomy behind the scenes and carefully controlled access to it.

Carlyle said: “This uneasy separation of the public and private demonstrates how the skeleton had become a powerful symbol of the new frontier of anatomy and, indeed, changing attitudes to the human body. ̽��ֱ��skeleton was mysterious, arousing, and morally compromising, but it was also becoming a domesticated object open to scrutiny and study by tourists and anatomists alike. By the end of the 18th century, the skeleton had made its way into the cabinet of scientific knowledge, and it was there to stay.”

Margaret Carlyle will talk about ‘Skeletons in the cabinet and the Grand Tour of anatomy’ on Monday, 17 February 2014, 1pm-2.15pm, Seminar Room 1, Department of History and Philosophy of Science. All welcome.

Inset images: (top and bottom) Frontispiece and Figure VII of François Tortebat’s 'Abrégé d’anatomie' (1760), Bibliothèque médicale, Poitiers; (middle) Oil painting of dissected women by French anatomist Jacques-Fabien Gautier d'Agoty, Wellcome Collection, http://wellcomeimages.org.

In a talk on 17 February, Margaret Carlyle, a researcher in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, will explore the fascinating (often gruesome) development in 18th-century Paris of anatomical models and introduce her audience to a remarkable woman who made her name in a field dominated by men.

It’s believed that Mlle Biheron is the only woman in Europe to establish herself independently as a modeller of wax anatomies.

Margaret Carlyle

La Specola, ̽��ֱ�� of Florence

Reclining female figure, Clemente Susini, late 18th century,

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Rethinking eccentricity

bjb42 — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Since the 18th century, English culture has been associated (both by the English themselves and by continental observers) with unusual tolerance towards unconventional and peculiar individuals. Even today, eccentricity is often seen as an obligatory component of the English national character. ̽��ֱ��eccentric is typically portrayed as a harmless and amiable figure, someone who provides others with a pleasant diversion from the tedium of everyday life.

But how historically representative are these received ideas of eccentricity? This question has formed the basis of my research and the subject of my recent book, which seeks to investigate more sceptically the cultural and ideological functions of eccentricity.

My research starts from two sets of assumptions: first, that eccentricity is neither timeless nor universal; second, that it is by no means always harmless and absurd. Eccentricity is, instead, a historically relative and context-dependent term, which must be situated within the broader histories of individualism and deviance. Eccentricity often elicited violent and conflicting responses, and was associated with potentially disturbing figures such as the insane, social marginals, human ‘monsters’ and the tempestuous Romantic genius. Beliefs about eccentricity varied widely across European national traditions, and were underpinned by complex assumptions about gender and class.

I chose 19th-century Paris as the focus of the study precisely because its culture was significantly different from English culture. ̽��ֱ��modern concept of eccentricity had crystallised in 18th-century England, a culture increasingly interested in poetic and psychological originality. Pre-Revolutionary French culture, by contrast, was markedly hostile to both originality and individual difference. It asserted that elegance was timeless, upheld rigid ideals of good taste and decorum, and stressed the need for social conformism. It was precisely the initial strength of French resistance to the values of eccentricity, I suggest, which make its reception after 1830 so revealing of tensions in French cultural identity.

Ambivalent emotions

Breaking with convention aroused highly ambivalent responses in 19th-century Parisian readers, writers and spectators. Eccentricity was debated in a wide range of sources, including etiquette manuals, fashion magazines, newspapers, novels, plays, political pamphlets, and scientific and psychiatric treatises. On the one hand, the scandal of ‘standing out’ evoked the aspirations of the bourgeoisie, namely its dreams of freedom, creativity and individuality. On the other, it symbolised the deepest anxieties of this class, the threat of madness, monstrosity and sin. Eccentricity was therefore simultaneously desired and feared, incorporated into and rejected from bourgeois identity.

Why were the French so ambivalent towards eccentricity? ̽��ֱ��French Revolution in 1789 inaugurated a century of unprecedented social and political instability, generating a strong desire in the French elite to create social cohesion and order. An orderly society entailed the suppression of any challenges to social norms. At the same time, however, the influence of Romanticism led to an increasing desire for individual freedom and fulfilment, whilst the bourgeoisie had strong faith in social and intellectual progress. ̽��ֱ��latter tendencies inevitably led to many norms and traditions being called into question, and 19th-century Parisian culture was at the forefront of attempts to probe the fragile boundaries between conformism and eccentricity. Three cultural fields in which this is most evident are fashion, bohemia and science.

Followers of fashion

Eccentricity in Paris of the 1830s was linked to flamboyant new fashions and the seductions of commodity culture. ̽��ֱ��values of fashion, including novelty and bizarreness, were diametrically at odds with the traditional values of French politeness and etiquette. Eccentric styles epitomised the intoxicating dangers of modernity, and were championed by a range of unconventional figures, including male and female dandies and the aristocratic figure of the lionne or lioness. ̽��ֱ��lionne rejected the fragility and hysteria associated with respectable women, and engaged instead in energetic ‘masculine’ pursuits such as horse-riding and smoking. But increasingly, such eccentricity was linked to demi-mondaines and courtesans, who, it was feared, were corrupting the morality and health of the social elite.

Bohemian culture

After Napoleon III’s coup d’état of 1851, the social position of the writer and artist became more problematic. Eccentricity was associated with the artists, social marginals and urban poor who inhabited ‘the unknown Paris’. This murky underworld fascinated bourgeois observers as much as it horrified them. Writers and journalists documented their ambivalent responses to exhibitions of human freaks in the fairground and to the half-mad visionaries of bohemian street culture. They were uneasily aware that they too failed to conform to bourgeois norms and that some eccentrics might be unrecognised geniuses.

Scientific theory

̽��ֱ��popularisation of medical theories of national decline after 1851 led to increasing moral panic. Eccentricity was interpreted as a symptom of insanity and concealed deformity, and eccentrics were often portrayed as a dangerous social menace which psychiatrists and legislators struggled to contain. Despite this, many writers, including Gérard de Nerval, Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly, Charles Baudelaire and Jules Vallès, championed ‘pathological’ and ‘monstrous’ forms of eccentricity. Their writing constitutes an act of symbolic resistance to a culture which defined normality, virtue and health in increasingly restrictive and unimaginative terms.

A contemporary debate

In charting the history of eccentricity, one conclusion I arrived at was that beliefs about precisely how much individuals are permitted to diverge from social norms differ considerably between cultures in response to very specific socio-historical factors. Gender appears to be central to the imagination of deviance in this period since what was deeply eccentric for women was often considered quite normal for men, and vice versa. Ultimately, the experience of ambivalence is inseparable from European modernity: eccentricity represents one compelling set of values (novelty, freedom, individuality) which clashed significantly with other, equally compelling values (stability, order, community). In many ways, this type of clash is central to debates in contemporary moral and political philosophy about the plurality of values and goods.

̽��ֱ��interdisciplinary focus of the project continues to develop, as it traces the migration of concepts and metaphors between literature, popular culture and science. Continuing to emphasise the ways in which social and psychological categories are implicitly shaped by values and norms, my research is now focusing on a cultural history of paranoia and suspicion in French modernity.

For more information, please contact the author Dr Miranda Gill (mfg24@cam.ac.uk) at the Department of French, in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages.

Miranda Gill traces shifting 19th-century perceptions of eccentricity, from its association with the intoxicating lure of modernity and fashion to the murky underworld of circus freaks and half-mad visionaries.

Eccentricity is, instead, a historically relative and context-dependent term, which must be situated within the broader histories of individualism and deviance.

by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library

Rethinking

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A life on the opera stage

tdk25 — Thu, 17 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

One of the most distinguished sopranos of her generation will visit Cambridge this evening to speak about her life and career with the world's foremost opera companies.

Yvonne Kenny trained at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music and La Scala Opera School in Milan. Yvonne won the coveted Kathleen Ferrier competition in 1975, before joining the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Her subsequent career has seen her grace the stages of the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Berlin State Opera, Opéra de Paris, Hamburg State Opera, Zurich Opera, Washington Opera and Opera Australia.

She has received international acclaim in many Händel roles, notably Semele and Alcina (Covent Garden and La Fenice, Venice) and Romilda (English National Opera and Munich's Bavarian State Opera). Her extensive discography includes works by Mozart, Elgar, Stravinsky, Britten and Strauss.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Australia and New Zealand Society (CUANZ) are hosting the visit in conjunction with Advance, the global networking organisation for Australian expatriate professionals.

"We are thrilled that Yvonne is joining us to talk about her amazing journey into what has become a glittering operatic career" said CUANZ President, Aimée Heuzenroeder.

CUANZ has a strong record of attracting influential antipodeans to its Cambridge events, from Professor Germaine Greer to Robert Thomson, the current Editor of ̽��ֱ��Times.

̽��ֱ��event will be held at the ̽��ֱ�� Centre this evening from 6pm with drinks served following Ms Kenny's address.

One of the most distinguished sopranos of her generation will visit Cambridge this evening to speak about her life and career with the world's foremost opera companies.

"We are thrilled that Yvonne is joining us to talk about her amazing journey into what has become a glittering operatic career"

bazylek100 from flickr

Opera Lwowska

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