"Anatomical drawing has long occupied a unique space between science and art - precise and informative but often also strangely aesthetically pleasing. Filled with images of dead and dissected bodies and body-parts, it was often by turns monstrous, provocative, playful and theatrical. Queer Anatomies reveals and explores the possibilities of sexual desire within anatomical drawings of the 18th and 19th centuries. It uncovers the subtle eroticism of certain anatomical illustrations, and the queerness of the men who made, used and collected them. A foundational subject in both the art academy and medical school, anatomy was a privileged, male-heavy domain in which dissected naked bodies, genitalia, and the rectum were available for representation. In the Victorian era, when same-sex desire and the human sexual apparatus were debarred from polite conversation and printed discourse, even seemingly sober illustrations could be charged with erotic, often homoerotic, undertones. Offering essayistic reflection and close readings of key images and texts - including works by Gautier d'Agoty, William Cheselden, Joseph Maclise and many others - Queer Anatomies places medical history, connoisseurship, queer studies, and art history into dialog with each other, and sheds new light on the history of anatomical illustration and the body. The book contains full-colour reproductions of a range of drawings - from renderings of dead and dissected bodies, penises, vaginas, rectums, hands, and skin, to images of male viewers gazing upon drawings, paintings, prints and sculptures of the naked body. Some are brilliant, accurate representations of the body, others are barely competent. But all are full of interest and offer a fascinating insight into the subversive reception of the naked body in the buttoned-up Victorian era"--
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.
