Date
1930
Object Type
Photograph
Subject
Interior view of a room at the Academy of Fine Arts Carrara dedicated to the study of anatomy.
Holding institution
Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara
About The Work
The photograph, datable to around the 1930s, documents the anatomy classroom of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Carrara. The setting testifies to the central role assigned to the study of the human body in artistic training, particularly in drawing and sculpture. Visible in the room are human skeletons, anatomical models, plaster casts, and didactic plates, all used as tools for observation and anatomical study—most of which are still preserved in the Academy’s collections and were long used for teaching anatomy. The coexistence of scientific and artistic materials reflects the close relationship between anatomical knowledge, academic practice, and the figurative tradition. The image represents a significant historical record of the Academy’s pedagogical organisation in the first half of the twentieth century. The prominently displayed horse skeleton further points to the importance of comparative anatomy and the study of animal form within academic artistic education.
In fact, hippology—the study of the morphology and anatomy of the horse—has a long and distinguished history, spanning from Leon Battista Alberti’s De equo animante and the studies of Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer to Carlo Ruini’s treatise Anatomia del cavallo, infermità et suoi rimedii (1598). This field brought together veterinary medicine and artistic-anatomical research, giving rise to a significant editorial tradition, particularly in France, beginning with the widely reprinted treatise by Claude Bourgelat (1761).
During the years of Eadweard Muybridge’s celebrated chronophotographic experiments—which revolutionised the understanding of equine movement, also influencing artists such as Edgar Degas—several important publications appeared. Among them were the Atlas de l’Anatomie des Formes du Cheval à l’usage des peintres et des sculpteurs by Guillaume Régamey (Paris, 1880), of which only the text pages, now disbound, are preserved at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara.
In fact, hippology—the study of the morphology and anatomy of the horse—has a long and distinguished history, spanning from Leon Battista Alberti’s De equo animante and the studies of Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer to Carlo Ruini’s treatise Anatomia del cavallo, infermità et suoi rimedii (1598). This field brought together veterinary medicine and artistic-anatomical research, giving rise to a significant editorial tradition, particularly in France, beginning with the widely reprinted treatise by Claude Bourgelat (1761).
During the years of Eadweard Muybridge’s celebrated chronophotographic experiments—which revolutionised the understanding of equine movement, also influencing artists such as Edgar Degas—several important publications appeared. Among them were the Atlas de l’Anatomie des Formes du Cheval à l’usage des peintres et des sculpteurs by Guillaume Régamey (Paris, 1880), of which only the text pages, now disbound, are preserved at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara.
Title
N°10 - AULA - D'ANATOMIA
Subject
Interior view of a room at the Academy of Fine Arts Carrara dedicated to the study of anatomy.
Creator
Studio Valenti
Date
1930
ShootingDate
July 1930
Object Type
Photograph
Technique / Support
Gelatin silver print
Original Function
Documentation / teaching tool
Dimensions
mm 190x270
Holding institution
Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara
Unique identifier
ICCD_MIDF_6104457561671