An Allegory of Wax Anatomies: André-Pierre Pinson

Abstract

This essay examines the ambiguous position of anatomical models on the spectrum between art and science in late eighteenth-century France. Central to my inquiry is André-Pierre Pinson (1746–1828), originally trained as a surgeon but active primarily as a specialist of polychrome anatomical models in wax. I show how he tried to negotiate his professional identity in settings that were more closely associated with an artistic career in late eighteenth-century Paris: he engaged with the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture), participated in the independent exhibition known as the Salon de la Correspondance, and eventually produced works for the private collection of Louis Philippe Joseph d’Orléans (1747–93). Pinson’s involvement in these settings suggests a desire to have his model-making expertise aligned with artistic production, or perhaps even to venture into conventional art making. To demonstrate Pinson’s sophisticated awareness of his boundary crossing, I focus on the Circulatory System of a Newborn, produced for Orléans in 1789. It thematizes an important contemporary technique of producing wax anatomies, so as to address it conspicuously as a proper subject matter of the work. At the same time, the work aspires to an ideal image, by presenting an imaginary result that the technique would have achieved if it had been devoid of imperfections. This play on the practice of anatomical model making and its limitations makes the Circulatory System an allegory, an artistic device of conveying a complex concept by means of a figural representation.