Collection of Clemente Susini Anatomical Wax Models at the University of CagliariHistory
The models were purchased by Viceroy Carlo Felice (1765- 1831), younger brother of King Carlo Emanuele IV (1751- 1819) during his reign (1799-1806) in Sardinia where he is still remembered as an enlightened prince, curiously enough, it considered that in Turin, instead, was later on nicknamed Carlo the Fierce (Scaraffia, 1987) for the harshness with which he had repressed the liberal movements of 1821 (Sotgiu, 1984). Carlo Felice not only granted to young anatomist Francesco Antonio Boi (1767-1860) to visit the most important anatomical schools of the time, but also financed his prolonged stay in Florence and the purchase of wax models by the Florentine artist Clemente Susini (1754-1814).
Francesco Antonio Boi was born in Olzai, a pleasant small town in the central Sardinia, into a family of farmers. Proving as a boy a lively intelligence, was started off, according to the custom of the time, on religious studies, but at age 18 he left the church life and went to Cagliari where he studied until the medical degree, obtained in 1795. Boi soon conquered an excellent reputation so much that in 1799 (Sorgia, 1986) he was appointed to the chair of human anatomy established as early as 1764, but until then entrusted to professors of other disciplines. He had a great academic and professional success (Dodero, 1999) and, in 1818, was appointed by the king "chief physician of the Kingdom of Sardinia", the title being comparable to that of the Minister of Health. He died in Cagliari in 1860.
For their contribution to the realization of the Museum deserve to be remembered: prof. Luigi Castaldi (1890-1945) and prof. Luigi Cattaneo (1925-1992), who were both chairmen of human anatomy at the medical faculty of the University of Cagliari. Luigi Castaldi, born in Pistoia, from 1926 to 1943, was the first to study and make known the collection of wax, until then virtually unknown, writing a seminal essay on Boi, Susini and Florentine wax modeling which was published after his death in 1945 (Castaldi, 1947). Luigi Cattaneo, born in Cura Carpignano (Pavia), arrived in 1963 and remained in Cagliari until his transfer to the University of Bologna in 1966. When in Cagliari, he realized that, while the wax models were in good condition despite the hardships suffered during the Second World War, the original windows, framed in walnut, appeared damaged. Cattaneo gave a great impetus to the Anatomical Institute, hiring as lecturers three young medical graduates: Alessandro Ruggeri, Alessandro Riva and Renato Scandroglio. With the help of technician Zelio Porru he, made the restoration of the showcases and the cleaning up of the waxes which were separated from other models of lower quality. Together with his friend Bruno Zanobio, then professor of History of Medicine at Pavia University, he studied the collection and published the first illustrated catalog (Cattaneo, 1970). After his death, it was published (Cattaneo and Riva, 1993) the second edition of the catalog together with a text in English and new photographs.
But back to the Boi. In 1801, as mentioned above, he obtained from Carlo Felice financial support to go on sabbatical in the Italian peninsula in order to deepen his knowledge of anatomy. He went first to Pavia, where the chair of anatomy was then held by Antonio Scarpa (1752-1832), the most famous Italian anatomist of the time, then moved to Pisa and Florence, where, although there was not an university, studies flourished at the Arcispedale of Santa Maria Nova, under the guidance of Paolo Mascagni (1755-1815), the great anatomist friend of Felice Fontana (1730-1805), founder and director of the Wax Museum "La Specola". On arrival in Florence, Boi began to attend the school of Mascagni where he remained for four years, until 1805; it is to his stay in Florence that we owe the collection of Cagliari. In fact, by express orders of Carlo Felice, Boi commissioned the models to Clemente Susini, attending personally, as reported by Pietro Meloni Satta (1892), to the dissections that were later reproduced in wax by the artist. Waxes costed 14,800 lire (Cara, 1872), a huge sum for that time if you think that the Susini, which chief modeler of the Museum "La Specola", was earning just 1,440 lire per year (Castaldi, 1947).
The models of Susini, arrived in Cagliari in 1806 and were part of the collections of the Museum of Antiquities and Natural History, founded by Carlo Felice, that then became the Museum of Antiquities of the Royal university of Cagliari, housed in the ground floor of Palace Belgrano until 1857 (Sorgia, 1986; Bullita, 2005). In that year, the core of the museum was moved to another location, while waxes were entrusted to the University and inventoried among the assets of the institute of human anatomy where they were probably used as teaching material. In 1923 the models were transported to the new anatomical institute in via Porcell, where they remained until 1991. During the war years the waxes were hidden by Carlo Maxia, successor of Castaldi, to avoid damages or rhefts. In 1963 Luigi Cattaneo obtained from the Rector pro tempore Giuseppe Peretti permission to separate them from other anatomical findings and to display them in a special room of the institute of anatomy. In 1978, the wax anatomical Cagliari were the maiden speech in 35th National Congress of the Italian Society of Anatomy. In 1991 Alessandro Riva, meanwhile appointed head of the collection moved waxes, thanks to the Chancellor pro tempore Duilio Casula, in the pentagonal room of the Citadel Museum square where Arsenal are still on permanent display. From that date prof. Riva has had, and still has, as skilled and trusted collaborator in the management and maintenance of the museum's collection, Mr. Mario Sorrentino.
The following year the museum has become part of CIMAS now CIMCAS (Interdepartmental Centre for Museums, Collections and Historical Archives) and the same year, by proxy Rector, Alessandro Riva has been confirmed, as head of the museum, by the Rector Pasquale Mistretta. In 1998, thanks to the intervention of the Chancellor and with the collaboration of Dr. Mistretta. Engineer Giancarlo Deplano, steps were taken to the arrangement of the room that was decorated with two portraits of Carlo Felice and of Clemente Susini, commissioned by prof. Riva to the Cagliari painter Gigi Camedda, through Luigi Zuddas. These pictures were obtained, respectively, by an official portrait of the viceroy and a terracotta Tortori (Poggesi, 1999). They were joined a century portrait that depicts the Boi, dressed in black and with the cross of the Mauritian Order (one of the most coveted honors in the Kingdom of Sardinia), while the exhibition with the forefinger of his left hand a shelf containing several volumes. On the back of them read, etched in gold, the authors' names and the titles of the following works: Marie François Xavier Bichat (1771-1802): General Anatomy; Felix Vicq d'Azyr (1748-1794): Tabulae Anatomicae; Johann Peter Frank (1745-1821): Epitome de Curandis Morbis; Paolo Mascagni (1755-1815): Vasorum Absorbentium Historia; Anthelme Richerand Balthasar (1779-1840): Physiology; Samuel Thomas Sommerring (1755-1830): De Humani Corporis Fabrica. According Castaldi (1947) these texts were his favorite.
In 2000 he set up a ticketing service and, two years later, Dr. Enrico Salis has produced new captions in four languages that have been affixed to the message boards. Finally, it should be remembered that the museum is home to publishing activities, both paper and electronic, made with the support of technical photographer Mr. Alexander Cadau, doctors Ignazio Lai and Happy Loffredo, director of the Central Library of the biomedical campus Mr. Beniamino Orrù and graph Mr. Attilio Baghino. The latter oversaw the website: http://medicina.unica.it/cere/, a short catalog in Italian, English and two cd-rom in Italian and English. In 1999, the catalog has been translated into Japanese by Dr. Akihisa Segawa (1953-2003) Kitasato University.
In the last decade, some waxes Cagliari were, on request, exhibited in prestigious museums, such as la Villette in Paris (1990), the National Science Museum in Tokyo (1999), the Hayward Gallery in London (2000), the Milan Triennale (2002), the Library Marciana in Venice (2004).
http://pacs.unica.it/cere/?page_id=81
Museum of Natural History of the University of Florence "La Specola"Wax model collections
The Museum of Natural History’s wax model collections are famous throughout the world for their exceptional craftsmanship and extraordinary realism.
The master modellers, who were true artists, worked the wax with formidable skill, managing to reproduce full bodies and anatomical parts with a wealth of details that still arouse wonder.
People such as Gaetano Giulio Zumbo, Clemente Susini, Francesco Calenzuoli, Giuseppe Ricci, Luigi Calamai and Egisto Tortori produced a large number of wax models dedicated to anatomy, pathology and comparative anatomy between the end of the 17th century and the middle of the 19th century.
The works of the Florentine wax modelling school were so popular they were requested by other Italian and European museums, ending up in Cagliari, Bologna, Pisa, Pavia, Modena, Montpellier, Budapest, Leiden and Vienna. I
ndeed, Vienna contains the most important collection after the Florentine one, having been commissioned by Emperor Joseph II of Austria, brother of Grand Duke Peter Leopold, for the military medical school that bore his name (Josephinum).
http://www.msn.unifi.it/en/collezioni/ceroplastica-2/
