The Human Touch

Making Art | Leaving Traces

Under the skin

Dr Auzoux’s factory-produced models were used for teaching medical students anatomy. Their accuracy and clever construction made them a viable alternative to the dissection of corpses. With twenty detachable parts and hundreds of numbered details, this model, at twice life-size, reveals layer by layer the infrastructure of touch beneath the skin: muscles, tendons, nerves, sense receptors, and bones.

Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux (1797–1880) Anatomical model of the hand
St. Aubin d’Écrosville, France 1876
Papier-mâché and plaster, 51 x 30 x 10.5 cm
On loan from the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge
Wh. 6598

Section: Two

Under the skin
Fitzwilliam Museum
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