A Body of Evidence: An Art Historical perspective on Eighteenth and ...

statues was a subtext that fitted neatly into the halls <strong>of</strong> nineteenth century
academia.
The Ideal <strong>Body</strong>
The practice <strong>of</strong> copying the poses <strong>of</strong> classical sculpture in the form <strong>of</strong> écorché
statues to emphasise the muscular system had a further effect, which was to
encourage the pursuit <strong>of</strong> ideal proportion and ideal form. Ecorché statues were
distinguished by their careful proportions from earlier wax anatomical models,
such as those produced by Desnoues and Zumbo, which closely followed the
proportions <strong>of</strong> a particular dissected body, as a consequence <strong>of</strong> Zumbo’s use <strong>of</strong>
casts and Desnoues’ insistence that the work represent a sanitised dissected
body. Moreover, the motivations for creating the two types <strong>of</strong> work were
distinct. The wax models had been made as a response to the problems <strong>of</strong>
decaying cadavers, but the écorchés were created predominantly for the
instruction <strong>of</strong> practitioners <strong>of</strong> medicine and art.
<strong>An</strong>other factor may have been awareness <strong>of</strong> Albinus’ publications, given the
strong association between model and illustration. 90 Ludwig Choulant contends
that from the 1730s, when Albinus published his books on anatomy, including
Tabulae skeleti et musculorum corporis humani, until 1770, there was a vacillation
between Vesalian representation and Albinian representation, but after 1770
90 Choulant, 1920, p. 277.