Incorruptible : The female body and the anatomical waxes at La Specola

 This PhD comprises a Gothic historical novel, set in the anatomical workshop at La Specola in eighteenth-century Florence, and a commentary which explores the female body in relation to the abject. The production of the Anatomical Venuses, life-sized wax models of women whose torsos can be removed to display the organs beneath, has baffled anatomists and art historians for centuries. With their heads tilted back and lips parted, these hyper-sexualised demonstrations of female anatomy contradict our expectations of accurate scientific objects. In pursuing this PhD, I aimed, through fiction, to explore and reconcile my response to these models within the context of society’s ingrained aversion to the female body.