This famous self-portrait of wax modeller Anna Morandi Manzolini can be admired in the anatomical wax section of the Science and Art Museums of Palazzo Poggi in Bologna (via Zamboni 33).
It’s impossible not to be impressed by the contrast between the rich and feminine elegance of Anna Morandi’s style of dress and her professional attitude in dissecting a human brain. As a historian remarked: “The seat of knowledge that lies quite literally in her feminine grasp is a clear provocation to those who would doubt women’s intellectual authority”1.
Anna Manzolini also made a similar portrait of her husband and ceroplasty colleague Giovanni Manzolini2.
- Photo by Luca Borghi @ (december 2008)
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