Death and the Maiden
Tag: morbid anatomy
La Pascualita
Rosalina Lombardo
Every time, almost without fail, when I see an art contest involving something I care about I enter without hesitation. A few months ago Universal Monsters asked artists to come up a new classic monster. Obviously I didn’t win but I had a lot of fun creating my entry.
I picked up a few of my creepy books and did some research for inspiration and I came across the interesting tale of Rosalina Lombardo. She was a little girl born in 1918 and died at the age of 2. Her father was so distraught at her death that he had her immaculately embalmed. Over 100 years after her death and her body is still relatively intact and looks like she’s sleeping. Some locals believe that her eyes open and close during the day, making her an (un)living legend. It made me think “what about a ghost story where she’s sentient?” So I spun a short tale about a little girl who walks amongst the dead, longing for the love and affection of a family in the dusty catacombs. For this story I changed her name to Rosalina Lombardo.
Obviously my entry didn’t win but I had a lot of fun being creative.
Anatomical Venus
I could never be a doctor, I don’t have the patience (or the money for school) but I am fascinated with the history of medicine, in particular the study of anatomy. I also like studying the history of death and funeral rituals from around the world, in particular victorian funeral customs. While browsing around the internet I discovered the wonderful art of Morbid Anatomy. I’d link any of the dozen or so blogs, image archives, or found jpegs in my folder but I encourage you to do a google search yourself. One subject that I particularly am interested in is the art of the so-called “anatomical venus.” In the 1800’s artists would create wax models from moldings, or with their own artistic talent, of unusual medical cases or various organs for medical students to examine without having to open up a fresh cadaver. One popular item was the Anatomical Venus, which is the full or quarter sized model of a deceased woman with a removable abdominal cavity exposing highly detailed models of internal organs. Here is one such example: 
I decided to draw my own Venus but add my own style to it. The organs are obviously exaggerated and taken with some creative license. The hair was the most fun part, I decided to make it look like intestines to make up for her missing digestive system.
Miss Laura Fear 