Erotic Dissections: Picturing Sex in Anatomy Atlases, an Illustrated Lecture with Daniel Margocsy

Date: Thursday, November 12th
Time: 8pm
Admission: $8
Location: Morbid Anatomy Museum, 424 Third Avenue, 11215 Brooklyn NY

Tickets Here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2405690

Anatomy is the study of all the external and internal parts of the human body. Porn is the study of only certain parts of the human body. And, sometimes, anatomy and porn mix in bizarre and curious ways. This talk examines how anatomical atlases were erotically charged from the 16th to the 20th centuries. It shows how readers were fascinated by the secrets of reproduction, and the male and female sexual organs, how authorities attempted to censor works of anatomy across the stages, and how women’s bodies were exploited in the pursuit of medical knowledge. We look at the groundbreaking De humani corporis fabrica of Andreas Vesalius, the 17th- and 18th-century works of Helkiah Crooke and Frederik Ruysch, among others ,and round up our survey with the notorious Anatomical Basis of Medical Practice from 1970.

Daniel Margocsy is associate professor of history at Hunter College CUNY, and author of Commercial Visions: Science, Trade, and Visual Culture in the Dutch Golden Age (Chicago, 2014). His new book project is titled Imagining Nature: Science and the Creative Arts from Columbus to Darwin, and he is also working on a census of Vesalius’ Fabrica.