Baby in the womb - Amazing anatomy models

The science museum of Bologna (Italy) has an amazing collection of anatomy models created around mid-1700s, and used for teaching to the medical students and obstetricians. I especially love the part of this museum that presents the models of babies in their mothers' wombs. If you ever visit Bologna and you are interested in human anatomy, do not forget to visit this museum.

This photo-essay presents some of the anatomical models from The Palazzo Poggi Science Museum of Bologna university.

Origins of anatomy models in Bologna

In 1758 Pope Benedict XIV asked the university of Bologna to establish a school for teaching obstetrics in Palazzo Poggi, that hosted the Bologna university at that time. Dr Giovanni Antonio Galli (1708-1782) was the first professor of obstetrics at this school. Most of the anatomy models displayed in Palazzo Poggi were created during the second half of 1700s by anatomy artists like Anna Morandi Manzolini, Giovanni Manzolini, Ercole Lelli and Clemente Susini. The models are made mainly in two kinds of materials - cold painted terracotta and wax.

Some of the first obstetrics models showing babies in the mother's womb were made by Giovanni Manzolini for Prof. Galli. When Giovanni Manzolini died in 1755, Prof. Galli asked his wife Anna Morandi Manzolini (1714-1774), who was also an artist and used to help her husband, to make the models. Majority of obstetrics models displayed in the Palazzo Poggi science museum are by Anna, who did human dissections and was appointed as the professor of anatomy.

Ercole Lelli (1702-1766) was a well known painter and anatomy modeller. His speciality was wax models of human bodies showing the bones and the muscles. Finally Clemente Susini (1754-1814) was another important artist who specialised in preparing wax models showing the different organs.

Obstetrics models of Palazzo Poggi

Let us start this virtual tour with a terracotta representation of Prof. Galli teaching to obstetricians. It shows both a pregnant woman as well as an anatomical model used for teaching. However, in reality only models were used for teaching and actual people were not brought in the theory classes.

When I had studied medicine in Delhi (India), we did not have any such models. Though I had studied human anatomy and obstetrics, most of our learnings were through looking at few diagrams and imagining the human body.

Today, the 3D computer-based models are common and are a wonderful learning tool. Some time ago, during a free online Coursera course on the anatomy of the upper limb, I had tried learning through virtual 3D models and they were wonderful!

Even comparing with the quality of virtual 3D models, I think that the terracotta models shown below are absolutely amazing.

During the pregnancy, the baby keeps on moving in different positions in the womb. Only when it is close to the delivery time, baby takes the position for the delivery. In most cases, the baby's head goes inside the birth canal and the opening of the uterus begins to dilate. Some of the possible positions for a head-first delivery are shown in the image below (though in these models, the head is still not engaged inside the birth canal):

Some times, instead of the head, baby's butt or the feet come out first - it can mean a more difficult delivery, especially if it is a first baby. Some of the positions for butt or feet first delivery are shown in the following models:

Inside the uterus, the baby is closed inside a membrane filled with liquid - the amniotic sack and the amniotic liquid, while the umbilical cord connects the baby to the placenta on the uterine wall as shown in the next models.

How do twin babies grow inside the uterus is another fascinating area of study, and are shown in the next images.

Most child-births are fairly straight-forward affairs, and women are known to have delivered even alone. However some times there can be complications. Thus regular check-ups during the pregnancy and the presence of a trained obstetrician or a trained traditional birth attendant is important during the child-birth.

Some countries in Africa and South Asia, including India, continue to have high mortality rates for the mothers and the new born babies. Urban areas in India have highly privatised health services with extremely high rates of Cesarean sections. On the other hand, services in rural areas and for the urban poor are lacking or are of poor quality. Reducing mortality of mothers and new born babies is one of the Millennium Development Goals - unfortunately, the progress for reaching this goal has not been sufficient.

The next image shows models depicting some complications during deliveries - intervention for removing placenta (normally placenta separates automatically after the child birth and comes out, but sometimes, it may need to be removed) and the rupture of the uterus.

The position of the placenta in the uterus can sometimes be a problem, if it is placed close to the opening of the uterus and thus, can rupture during the early phases of the child-birth. Therefore, an ultra-sound test is important during the pregnancy to rule out any malformations and to confirm the position of the placenta.

Unfortunately in countries like India and China, ultra-sound test may also be used for sex-determination and abortion of female foetuses.

The next image shows the wax models explaining the different positions of placenta inside the uterus.

Ercole Lelli's wax models

The anatomy museum also has the wax models of Ercole Lelli showing the human bodies, especially the bones and muscles. There are both male and female models, that show the different layers of skin, tissues, muscles and bones in the human body. These make learning of human anatomy such as the functions of individual muscles in moving different joints, so much simpler.

The Venerina of Clemente Susini

Clemente Susini had specialised in the models showing different organs of the body, important for understanding of human anatomy and physiology. One of his most famous creations is the model of a pregnant woman, where you can remove different layers of skin and muscles to look inside different organs, and to take out individual organs to study them.

Conclusions

Every time I visit the anatomy museum of Palazzo Poggi, I wish that we had access to such models when we were studying medicine. Even if you are not a doctor, I think that such models are interesting because they help us to understand our bodies better.

Palazzo Poggi museum has different sections including astronomy, physics, geology, natural history, boats and war-strategy. In this post I have limited myself to the anatomy models, but other sections of the museum are also very interesting. It is a 14th century building with some truly wonderful frescoes. If you are planning a visit to Bologna, do not forget to visit this beautiful museum!

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Angels, snake-women and queens - Female forms in Viennese sculptures

Europe provides a lot of opportunities for admiring sculptures and art in public spaces. They can be memorial statues of famous persons such as kings, leaders, artists and scientists. They can be commemorative statues to remember specific events from countries' or cities' histories. They can be expressions of symbolic ideas or an expression of peoples' wealth and linked to specific buildings. They can also be artworks and cultural expressions used for beautification.

In this post I want to share 16 of my favourite images of sculptures of female forms from Vienna in Austria.

Starting from medieval period, Vienna gradually became a rich city - it was the capital of Austrian-Hungarian empire and a trade hub for commerce between western and eastern Europe. As it lacked the ruins, history and culture of  ancient Greek and Roman civilisations, over the past couple of centuries, the city asked artists to create works that represent those ancient civilisations. Late Gothic and Baroque styles are thus most prominently visible in Vienna. Most of the images presented in this post show sculptures in these two styles.

The first four images present sculptures of women from different groups of statues remembering or celebrating famous  men - persons like Ferdinand Raimund, Johann Andreas von Liebenberg and Johannes Brahms. The first one has an angel with butterfly wings and a star on her forehead. I like the playful expression on her face.

The next one is also an angel, but with more classic angelic wings and a serious face. She holds in her hand a victory wreath.

I especially like the next image from the famous music composer Johannes Brahms' memorial. The woman in this sculpture has one hand on a broken lyre. However, for me the beauty of this sculpture is in the cracks that seem to symbolise death and decay.

Finally this last statue in bronze of a sitting woman, has nice green-effects due to oxidation, and seems to be holding a branch of olive, probably to symbolise peace.

The next image shows the only statue commemorating a powerful woman - Maria Theresia from 18th century (her titles were: Archduchess of Austria, King of Hungary and Queen of Bohemia) and thus, it is also the only statue of a woman in this group of images, who is not young and beautiful.

The world is controlled by men and it is men who take decisions about the statues in public spaces. Thus statues commemorating persons are usually of men, where women are supporting figures and are selected for the male gaze. In fact, if you look at the women in the sculptures shown in all the other images of this post, you will see that they are all young and beautiful looking.

The next five images have women used as a symbol to express a concept such as victory or justice. The first two are from the parliament building. The first one is a little kitsch with lot of gold-plating including an angel holding a victory wreath. Though Austrians call their country "fatherland", I feel that this statue probably denotes Austria (or may be, it is democracy? or law and order?)

The next image has a half-woman and half feline mythological figure with wings, that brings to mind the sphinx from Egypt.

The next two images of sculptures are from the opera house, where Mozart used to work and perform. The sculptures are in renaissance style and probably depict virtues such as shyness, purity and destiny.

The next image is from Schonberg residence of the king and is in classical Greek style with a Greek mythological figure (may be a forest godess or a hunting godess, with a dead deer at her feet).

The next two images are also symbolic and both have women with a snake. When I saw them, my first thought was that these were figures inspired by the Adam and Eve story of the Bible, where the snake represents the temptation, while the discovery of sexuality is represented by the apple. These representations often show Adam as the personification of innocence, while Eve is shown as the temptress holding the snake or the apple in her hand and thus causing Adam's fall from the heaven. This identification of woman as the negative influence on men and thus, whose body must be covered and hidden, and who should be controlled by the men, is common in conservative groups of different religions.

This next sculpture also reminded me of stories of nag-panchami in India, when you are supposed to offer milk to snakes.

Women and snakes were together part of many other mythologies - like Echidna, the half-snake and half human figure from the Greek mythology and Ichchadhari nagin (woman who turns into a snake at night) in the Indian mythology. These statues also reminded me of the Cleopatra story, who had committed suicide by getting herself bitten by a poisonous snake.

Stories of snake-woman can be seen as old superstitions. In psychological terms they can also be seen as expression of suppressed emotions linked to jealousy or sexuality. (If you can read Hindi, I suggest you to read Archana Verma's analysis of Indian writer Premchand's story "Nagpuja" on the theme of snake-woman.)

The next two images are about the female figures in art. The first figure is the often represented ideal of "woman as a mother".

The second figure is that of the baby girl Maggie Simpson with her milk bottle from the well known animated films of the Simpson family.

Finally, the last two images of this collection are about women used as columns to support doors or windows. Using female figures as columns is an ancient practice and such figures are called Caryatids. Perhaps the most famous example of caryatids is from a temple in ancient acropolis in Athens (Greece).

I love these two images very much. Though they are also made in the Greek style, they represent working class women in their daily lives. At the same time, they show women who are friends, and who share an easy intimacy. Normally caryatids show young women striking poses to show off their bodies, like most other public sculptures of women. These two images instead have everyday women who seem to be together in their own worlds and who are not on display for others.

So which of these images do you like most?

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Must see places in Bologna

 (A post from 2010, edited & corrected in 2013)

 

Are you planning a visit to Bologna and would like to know what places you should visit? Or, you have looked at the tourist guides, but you would like some thing more? Often people coming to Bologna ask my advice. Naturally my advice depends upon my interests. When I visit a place, I like understanding about local history, and arts. I also like visiting any sites of archeological interest. This list reflects these interests.

Places to see near Bologna:

Let me start with two places that are not in Bologna but are very close and can be a great for a half day trip: Marzabotto and Dozza.

(1) Marzabotto is a small town, to the south of Bologna, at the foothills of Apennine mountains. Marzabotto is a stop on the Bologna-Porretta train line and there are frequent trains from the Bologna railway station.

On one of the hills called Monte Sole, not very far from Marzabotto, during the last phase of second world war, there was a massacre of civilians by German troops. Between 29 September to 5 October 1944, 770 civilians were killed including 216 children, 316 women and 142 elderly persons. You can still hear echoes of that massacre in the ruins of houses and churches on Monte Sole.

However, the place I would like to suggest you to visit is the Etruscan necropolis, close to the city. Here was one of the largest Etruscan settlement in this part of Italy and its pre-roman ruins are breath-taking including the strange tombs with round stones. Close to the necropolis, there is an Etruscan museum.

(2) The second place, outside Bologna but not very far, that I would like to suggest for a half day trip is medieval town of Dozza. It is to the east of Bologna, on the road going towards the seaside towns of Rimini, Riccione and the small mountain country of San Marino. Located on a small hill with a medieval castle, surrounded by gentle hills known for their San Giovese vineyards, Dozza is like a small jewel. Some decades ago, the old city decided to reinvent itself by inviting artists from different countries to come to the city to paint or to draw murals on the houses. Over the years, a large number of houses in the old city present those artwork in a permanent open-air art exhibition.

Walking on the cobbled streets, surrounded by colourful paintings and artwork is a wonderful experience. The basement of the medieval castle of Dozza holds the regional Enoteca, vine tasting and selling centre with the possibility of trying some of the best vines from Emilia Romagna region.

To go to Dozza, you can take a bus going towards Imola from the regional bus station of Bologna, not very far from the central railway station.

Places to see in Bologna:

Now we come to my favourite places in the city. These places may be mentioned in some tourist guidebooks but usually these are not considered important. Some of them may not be there in the tourist guidebook, or at least not in the way I want you to look at them. I am going to start from the southern edge of the city and work up my way towards the north and east. Thus the order of the places I am suggesting is geographical and not because of their importance or beauty. Most of these places do not require a ticket, they are free.

(3) Third place on my list is a hiking trip near Parco della Chiusa (Parco Talon), a huge park and protected forest around a small dam on the river Reno located in Casalecchio di Reno, a suburb on the southern edge of Bologna.

Take the road next to the church, without entering the Park and walk up. This place has bomb shelters from the second world war, when many persons from Bologna had taken refuge there. In two minutes you will find yourself in a protected forest and the first of the “cross-stations”, the small altars along the mountain track to commemorate the 12 places where Jesus had stopped before his crusifixtion.

The hiking trip is for following the trail of the cross-station altars to reach the San Luca church at the top of the hill. Views from the top are beautiful and hike itself, in the middle of protected forest area is wonderful. At places the climb is a little steep, but for most parts it is fairly easy. Remember to wear sturdy shoes, take a wind-cheater or a jacket with you and do it in company, don’t do it alone.

For coming down from San Luca try the stairs and the covered archway that starts from the city centre and goes up all the way to the church.

To reach Parco della Chiusa, take a bus like 20 going towards Casalecchio and get down at the bus stop just after the park.

(4) Fourth place on my list is the Certosa cemetery near the city stadium. The 2000 years old cemetery is built on an old Etruscan archeological site and requires at least half a day for a proper visit. It is divided into sections and is full of “monumental graves”, graves built like monuments with beautiful sculptures representing ideas and fashions of different historical periods.

It is like a huge open air museum. I have been there many times, but still there are parts of the cemetery that I have not yet explored.

To go to the cemetery, take any bus going towards the stadium (14, 20, 21, 89, 94) and get down at Certosa.

(5) Fifth place on my list is the old port of Bologna, that goes back to the time when the city was criss-crossed with canals. After the second world war, unfortunately most of these canals have been covered for making parking places and roads.

Inside the old city, there are a number of places where you can go down for an underground visit to the old canals including some Roman ruins. Usually you need to book these tours in advance and pay for them. However, the place I am suggesting is just outside the old city and here the canal comes out in open.

You can start your visit from the corner between Via Minzoni and Viale Pietramellara, the circular ring road surrounding the old city. Here you can see the Salara, the salt house of the old port. It now hosts the Bologna Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) centre with a wonderful library on GLBT themes and a very lively restaurant in the basement, inside the moat, venue of many cultural events in the evening.

After the visit to Salara, we need to go to the old port. The ruins of the main port are close to via Gagarin. You can take bus 11A or 11B going towards Via Agucchi and get down in Via Gagarin and look for the canal. On one side of the road, next to the canal is Villa Angeletti, a beautiful park. On the other side, there are apartment buildings and an unimportant looking small track that goes along the canal. Take this unassuming track and a 5 minutes walk will bring you to a wonderful place hidden from the main road – the ruins of the old port.

Behind the port, the canal is divided into two parts with a long and narrow island between the two sides. Stairs go down to the island and is a wonderful place for a walk and for bird watching. If you feel like it, you can even walk along the canal to the “chiusa”, the place where boats were lifted up for moving in the canal. You can also visit the industrial museum close by.

(6) Now we start moving towards the centre of the old town and I suggest a stop at St Francis church at Piazza Malpighi. One of the earliest buildings of French gothic architecture style in Italy, it was damaged during the second world war and you can make out the repair on its façade. It was used as a customs house during Napoleon’s occupation of Bologna in eighteenth century. Used as a meeting place for the arts students in medieval Bologna, it is worth visiting for the graves of law teachers. There is a wide variety of statues, lying down, busts, reading a book and many more, above the graves. There is the grave of a heretic Pope, Pope Alexander V, also known as Anti-pope. The slender bell tower is very beautiful.

The cloister of St Francis church has one of my favourite engravings of a classroom scene from medieval Bologna. It shows that bored teachers and playful students haven’t changed after so many centuries.

(7) From St Francis church let us now move towards the central city square, Piazza Maggiore. Just let me mention the wonderful Sala Borsa, as you enter the square near the Neptune statue. Sala Borsa’s last incarnation was as the Bourse or the share market, but before that it was a general market, a park with a water reservoir and fountains, a botanical herbal garden of monks and even before that an old inhabited site with two thousand years old Roman ruins.

Sala Borsa now holds the central library of Bologna. Its wedding cake like balconies with a beautifully painted roof is worth a look. But even more important is to look down through its transparent floor, where you can see the old ruins from different archeological periods.

(8) After Sala Borsa, enter the Palazzo d’Accursio next door and walk to the wonderful stairs at the back, that were made for horsemen to gallop up the two floors without slipping. Go the second floor for the Municiple art collection of Bologna. The second floor main hall is wonderful with its frescoes in different shades of browns. Take a look at medieval frescoes in the Sala Farnese and you will feel like standing there and gazing at them endlessly. (If you have problems in climbing the two floors, you can look for the elevator).

However, don’t get lost with Sala Farnese, remember to go to the Municiple art collection (you will have to collect a free ticket). If you don’t have the time to go through all the collection, ask one of the volunteers there to guide you to the Pelagio Pelagi collection. This rich nobleman of Bologna has left his art and sculpture collections to the city and a key part of his collection are his own works. I love his paintings and I think that he merited more appreciation. Probably he was dismissed for being a “rich art lover” and never got his due as an artist.

(9) After you are done with admiring the square and the cathedral, I suggest that you move to Santa Maria della Vita church on Via Clavature, 5 minutes walk away from the square. This church was part of the oldest hospital in Bologna and you have time, you can take a look at the old hospital museum next door. But don’t miss the “ugly Marias” of Bologna inside the church, in a side room, that can be reached by small stairs next to the altar. These are a set of terracotta figures made by Niccolò dell’Arca showing the dead Christ and the grieving Marias (Mary, Christ’s mother and Mary Magdalena), their mouths open in a silent scream.

They are incredibly moving, though Bologna men are known for calling any ugly looking women as “like the ugly Marias of Bologna”.

(10) The next on my list is the small St. Cecilia chapel on Via Zamboni, 10 minutes walk from Via Clavature. You will see the faded frescoes on the outside wall of St. Cecilia church and underneath the archway, desperate looking signboards asking you to visit the chapel. For once, it is not a ploy to lure unsuspecting tourists to some mediocre sightseeing visit. The chapel is worth a visit and it is a pity that it is so little known.

If you follow the signs and go through the side entrance, you will find yourself in a passageway with a small door pointing towards the chapel. The shock when you enter the chapel after such unassuming entrance is worth the visit. The bright coloured frescoes covering all the walls are like a hallucination. It is a small chapel and yet the quantity of images and colours it contains is very impressive.

(11) Now we move to my last stop for this Bologna trip. This is another climbing trip. Walk back to the twin towers in the centre of Bologna and enter the tower of Assinelli. There is a three Euro ticket and the climb up the narrow winding stairs is tiring. Every now and then, depending upon the state of your lungs and body weight, you will need to stop, catch your breath and look out of narrow windows at the panorama of Bologna.

But the view from the top is really great, it is literally breath-taking, and it makes you understand why Bologna was called the city of towers. Most of the towers are gone now, but still hidden among the buildings, there are enough of them to justify this name.

If you are in Bologna on a snowy winter day, the view from the top becomes even better with snow covering the roof gardens of old city.

Conclusions:

There are many more places that I love in Bologna. When I had started to write this post, I was thinking of mentioning seven best places, but I just couldn’t decide which ones to leave out. However, I can easily add another 11 places, and I am sure that there are many more things to do in Bologna, that I still need to discover.

If you do come to Bologna and this post is useful in some way, please do remember to tell me about it.

You can also download a PDF version (without images) of this post for printing and carrying with you to Bologna.

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This post was originally written in 2010

Gifts of the oriental kings

(A post from 2011, edited & corrected in 2013)

 

Have you ever wondered about how did the tradition of making gifts for Christmas started?

The story of the birth of Jesus says that when he was born, a comet appeared on the sky and three wise kings from the orient followed the comet to look for Jesus and they brought gifts for the new born baby. This event of gifts of oriental kings is remembered in the celebration of Epiphany on 6th January. Thus people used to make gifts for the children on 6 January.

In Italy, the festival of epiphany has been linked to an older Roman tradition, when it was believed that a witch riding on a broom brings gifts for the children. The image of the old witch called Befana was linked to the festival of Epiphany on 6th January. Similarly, northern European countries had the old tradition of an old man riding on a reindeer sledge, over time that was also linked to Christmas.

Old Italians tell that when they were young, they used to receive gifts brought by "Befana" only for epiphany on 6 January, but slowly over the last fifty years, the figure of Christmas father "Santa Claus" has become more popular and everyone has adopted the northern custom of gifts brought by Santa Claus on the Christmas day.

In Italy, 8th December is considered the start of Christmas celebration and families set up the Christmas tree and make the crib or the nativity scene in their homes and in the city squares. Epiphany marks the end of Christmas celebrations and on this day families will remove the Christmas trees, lights and the crib.

I like to go around to see the crib or the nativity scene representations. They remind me of the Janamashtami celebrations in India, when people make the representations of the story of birth of Krishna. Today I also want to present some of my best pictures of the nativity scenes.

The nativity scenes have 3 main characters - Joseph (the father) usually shown with a stick in his hand, Mary (the mother) and Jesu (the new born baby).

There are four other important characters of the nativity scene - an angle and the three kings who came from orient.

Frequently, to these, people add in their nativity scenes, some farm animals such as cows, sheep, donkeys, etc. Finally, some persons also try to show scenes of normal life around the nativity scenes, as you can see in the next pictures.

People also like to show their individuality by choosing different styles of clothes and statues. For example, in the next picture you can see that one of the oriental "kings" wearing a brown gown is a woman.

Here are some examples of some naitivity scenes that I liked from 2011:

So did you like my selection of best nativity scenes from 2011 from Italy? Which one do you like most? My personal favourite is crib in the last picture, it is simple with the angle holding the main characters of the story in her arm.

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This post was originally written in 2011