Anna Morandi's Wax Self-Portrait with Brain

Abstract

In her self-portrait in wax, eighteenth-century Bolognese anatomist and anatomical modeler Anna Morandi Manzolini (1714-1774) represented herself in sumptuous aristocratic dress while dissecting a human brain. This essay explores the scientific and symbolic meaning of the vivid self-portrayal in terms of Anna Morandi's lifework at the intersection of art and anatomical science and within the remarkable cultural context of Enlightenment Bologna that fostered her rise to international acclaim. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.