Exquisite bodies

Another random course I've taken into my stride is 'discovering London's hidden museums' with Draw London. Each week we check out a 'lesser known' museum and draw artifacts and the like that they feature. Last Friday it was held at the Wellcome Collection - a museum that is comprised of the medical fascinations of Henry Wellcome, who had gained his fortune in the pharmaceutical industry. His collection is diverse and expansive. He was intrigued with the differing interpretations of healing practices found throughout the globe. His collection was formed mostly to understand these differences, rather than for the beauty of the objects themselves.

One particular object that took my eye and prompted me to draw was a Peruvian mummy, tucked away in the back corner of the room. This mummified male was from the Chimu people of Peru c. 1200 - 1400. He was laid to rest seated upright, wrapped in fabric, with a false head attached to the bundle. I have included the sketch that I made. For some reason, it was when I started to draw the toes that I really felt like it was a human being, the rest of the body seemed so unreal and distant from our own soft, healthy flesh, even the face had hollowed in to form a spooky looking mask.

At the same museum there was an exhibition called: 'Exquisite Bodies' - the curious and grotesque story of the anatomical model. It was something I had seen advertised and was keen to get my hands on, so I ventured in excitedly after the class finished.

It was interesting to learn that whilst these anatomical wax figures had first been developed for educating medical students and practitioners, it also found another purpose, which was to educate the mostly illiterate lower classes in disease spread and control, and further, in its 'freak show' format, also sought to nurture the dirty fantasies of the people of the day for the peculiar and abnormal. It is unfortunate that the moral campaigners of the time managed to destroy most of the 'peculiar' artifacts, leaving only a handful remaining to be seen today.