Trove of Wax Corpses Found in Florence Museum
Only five minutes from the Uffizi's galleries of elevated Renaissance paintings--Apostles standing contrapasso, saints ascending and Mary assuming--the Museo La Specola gives a taste of the less divine end that awaits most of us. The halls are lined with cases of dead animals, everything from tapirs to woodpeckers but the main attractions are the life-sized wax sculptures of corpses made in the 1700's. The figures are eerily realistic (they were carved from real-live corpses). Of particular note, are the foetal twins who nestle like human ying-yangs in the womb and the intricate dioramas by the famed wax miniaturist Gaetano Giulio Zumbo. Often deserted, the museum is located in the Oltr'Arno, the less trafficked neighborhood of Florence south of the River Arno. Like life, the museum's hours are short and impetuous. It opens at nine and closes at one everyday, is closed completely on Wednesdays and is open to five on Saturdays.
Museo La Specola [Official Site, in Italian]
[photo: neios]
