Five Woodcut Illustrations of the Anatomical Theater at Bologna, c.1668
This unique suite of five woodcuts annotated in manuscript illustrates the most famous of all early modern anatomical theaters. Situated at Bologna, the most renowned institution of its kind in Europe inspired countless students of anatomy, scholars, artists, diplomats, and Grand Tourists to arrange a visit to its theater, where the gravity of sometimes gruesome dissections may have been lightened by the surrounding Baroque architectural and ornamental splendor.
This suite of woodcut engravings constitutes one of just two complete and accurate depictions of the original theater prior to its dramatic alteration by Ercole Lelli during the 1730s. The theater, used for anatomy lectures, demonstrations, dissections, and exhibitions, was originally constructed between 1636 and 1638, following the designs of architect Antonio Levanti. By 1649 the entire room was richly decorated in an elegant wooden finish. The only other complete set of these prints resides in the Bologna Archiginnasio, the original site of the anatomical theater. Yale University and the National Library of Medicine possess fragments, though neither features the sophisticated plate of mythological ceiling carvings present in the Hopkins suite.
The elaborately carved and coffered ceiling was undoubtedly the theater’s pièce de résistance for centuries, at least until its destruction during World War II. Magnificent constellations frame the grand central figure of Apollo, the god of both reason and healing. The surrounding walls of the theater were equally grand, with twelve life-size wooden statues of ancient and modern physicians, including Hippocrates and Galen, and twenty carved busts of graduates and professors of the University of Bologna’s medical school. On either side of the instructor’s pulpit (cattedra) appear life-sized carved male and female figures designed to be used for reference during lectures and demonstrations. Above the instructor’s seat was a representation of the allegory of Anatomy, here a woman, accepting from a cherub the gift of a femur bone. The larger ornamental scheme combines to emphasize at every turn the high value placed on learning and the intrepid quest for knowledge.
At the center of the room, cadavers were placed on a large marble table, where assistants would carry out dissections as the professor lectured and explained the process from his pulpit. It is widely believed that the practice of dissection as a pedagogical exercise was first developed in Bologna in the fourteenth century, and the University of Bologna certainly remained the premier European institution for students of anatomy well into the seventeenth century. Use of the anatomical theater was not exclusive to faculty and students. Around the time of Carnival, instructors routinely held day-long demonstrations (gran fontione), carefully choreographed anatomy lessons, with lectures, discussions, and dissections. Co-sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church—in fact, masses were held in the chapel next door for the souls of those whose bodies had been proffered for dissection. These feste had a ceremonial air about them that seamlessly merged the pursuits of science and religion, albeit under the pagan gaze of Apollo himself.
Apparently, close to the time of their production the Hopkins woodcuts also reveal a pragmatic purpose: each is annotated with manuscript notes identifying the segment of the theater represented.
—Kelsey Champagne, Earle Havens
Bibliography
Giovanni Ferrari, “Anatomy Lessons and the Carnival: The Anatomy Theatre of Bologna,” Past & Present 117 (November 1987): 50–106; Ronald Huebert, “Performing Anatomy,” Renaissance and Reformation 33:3 (Summer 2010), esp. 9–13; Cynthia Klestinec, Theaters of Anatomy: Students, Teachers, and Traditions of Dissection in Renaissance Venice (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011), esp. 16–54.
