Queer Anatomies: Aesthetics and Desire in the Anatomical Image, 1700-1900 - Couverture souple

Sappol, Michael

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1350400874 ISBN 13 : 9781350400870

Editeur : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2024

Synopsis

In centuries past, sexual body-parts and same-sex desire were un­men­­tionables de­barred from polite conver­sa­tion and printed discourse. Yet one scientific discipline-ana­to­my-had license to rep­re­sent and nar­rate the in­timate details of the human body-anus and genitals in­clud­ed. Figured with­in the frame of an anatomical plate, pre­sen­ta­tions of dissected bo­dies and body-parts were often soberly tech­ni­cal. But just as often mon­strous, provoca­tive, flirtatious, theatri­cal, beau­tiful, and even sensual. Queer Anatomies explores overlooked examples of erotic expression within 18th and 19th-century anatomical imagery. It uncovers the subtle eroticism of certain anatomical illustrations, and the queerness of the men who made, used and collected them.

As a foundational subject for physicians, surgeons and artists in 18th- and 19th-century Europe, anatomy was a privileged, male-dominated domain. Artistic and medical compe­tence depended on a deep knowledge of anatomy and offered cultural legitimacy, healing authority, and aesthetic discernment to those who practiced it. The anatomical image could serve as a virtual queer space, a private or shared closet, or a men's club. Serious anatomical subjects were charged with erotic, often homoerotic, undertones.

Taking brilliant works by Gautier Dagoty, William Cheselden, and Joseph Maclise, and many others, Queer Anatomies assembles a lost archive of queer expression-115 illustra­tions, in full-colour reproduction-that range from images of nudes, dissected bodies, penises, vaginas, rectums, hands, faces, and skin, to scenes of male viewers gazing upon works of art governed by anatomical principles. Yet the men who produced and savored illustrated anatomies were reticent, closeted. Diving into these textual and represen­ta­tional spaces via essayistic reflection, Queer Anatomies decodes their words and images, even their silences. With a range of close readings and com­par­ison of key images, this book unearths the connections between medical history, connoisseur­ship, queer studies, and art history and the understudied relationship between anatomy and desire.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Michael Sappol is Visiting Researcher at Uppsala University, Sweden. He is a historian of visual culture and performance of medicine and science. He was Historian, Scholar-in-Residence and Exhibition Curator at the National Library of Medicine, USA between 1998 and 2016.

À propos de la quatrième de couverture

Explores the possibilities of concealed eroticism in anatomical drawings of the 18th and 19th centuries. Includes detailed analysis of text and images and explores the lives of the men who drew these illustrations, and those who used and collected them.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
• Date d'édition: 2024
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1350400874
• ISBN 13: 9781350400870
• Reliure: Broché
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 280
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