fondazione prada and david cronenberg dissect female wax models for anatomy exhibition

Jun 23, 2023

Fondazione Prada in Milan and David Cronenberg anatomize the science and art behind female bodies at ‘Cere Anatomiche’ using historic lifelike wax models from previous decades. The two-fold exhibition, which runs from March 24th to July 17th, 2023, revolves around the latest addition to the research project of Fondazione Prada and the artistic fascination of sci-fi horror director David Cronenberg for the science of human bodies.

As Cronenberg says, the wax figures of La Specola – one of the oldest science museums in Europe and from where the wax figures were borrowed – were created mainly as teaching tools to explore the human body for those who could never access the relatively rare corpse dissection sessions at universities and teaching hospitals.

‘But in their effort to create certain partially dissected full figures whose body language and facial expressions did not display pain or agony, did not suggest they were undergoing torture or punishment or even surgery, they happened to produce living characters who seemed to be in the throes of ecstasy. It was this startling choice on the part of the sculptors of these figures that captured my imagination: what if it was the dissection itself that induced that ecstasy, that almost religious rapture?’ he says.

close up of recumbent female statue showing the distribution of the lymphatic vessels, late 18th century, ‘La Specola’ Museum | header: ‘Venus,’ recumbent female statue, 1782 | photos by Saulo Bambi (unless stated), images courtesy of Fondazione Prada

For ‘Cere Anatomiche’, Fondazione Prada in Milan and David Cronenberg present a selection of thirteen 18th-century ceroplastic works from the collection of the Florentine museum. These dissected bodies with hyperrealistic flesh, muscles, and bones focus on the female wax models and the way women's body has been delved into for scientific purposes.

A short movie shot by David Cronenberg at La Specola is screened along with the exhibition. In this film, the director uses digital editing to show an alternative narrative on women's bodies for academic research. The movie looks into recurrent elements and themes of his creative vision, alluding to his fascination for the human body and its potential mutations and contaminations.

Through it, David Cronenberg offers an alternative gaze on the four female wax models on display. He steers them away from their academic function as medical demonstrations and educational tools. His film reveals the vivid world of ceroplastics infused with his eye and style for psychological impressions and intense emotional responses.

recumbent female statue showing the distribution of the lymphatic vessels, late 18th century

The exhibition then unfolds into a meeting between the scientific and artistic narratives. In the main exhibition space of Fondazione Prada, La Specola's waxes are on display with a scientific museum-like approach. On the ground floor, the same works merge with Cronenberg's imagery and flash the enigmatic process of bodily metamorphosis.

‘Cere Anatomiche’ features four reclining female wax figures from the Lymphatic System section and one from the Obstetrics along with nine detailed waxes on gestation produced in the Age of Enlightenment and a series of seventy-two exhibition copies of anatomical drawings gathered in nine vitrines.

For ‘Cere Anatomiche’, Fondazione Prada in Milan and David Cronenberg have collaborated with La Specola, one of Europe's oldest science museums and a part of the Museum of Natural History and Museum System of the University of Florence. La Specola houses the collection of Sicilian wax modeler Gaetano Giulio Zumbo (1656-1701). He made 1,400 pieces of anatomical waxworks between the late 18th and early 19th centuries to help illustrate the anatomy of the human body without resorting to dissecting real-life corpses.

recumbent female statue showing the lymphatic vessels, late 18th century | photo © Aurelio Amendola