Surprising Origins: Florentine 18th-century wax anatomical models as inspiration for Italian horror

Annette Burfoot... Surprising Origins: Florentine 18th-century wax anatomical models as inspiration for Italian horror (Kinoeye Vol 2, Issue 9, 13 May 2002). "...La Specola has always been open to the public, and to all classes thereof, so long as they were clean and presentable. As such, this museum in particular, but also the emerging visual culture of modern science in general, opened up the new empirical world to venues beyond the traditional closed doors of its courtly and priestly patrons. Following the practice of dramatic display of dissection (performed in semi-public 'theatres'), these models can be read as a type of contemporary popular culture. And one of the display's main draws was the journey into the mysterious terrain of the body's interior, with the most exciting scene of all in the gynaecological room."