breaking down the corpse in art
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all manner of the macabre.
d_composition is an art historical take on the body hereafter. Formed at the intersection of visual culture and death, it’s aimed at those who rubberneck for anything morbidly curious. We welcome the presence lurking in the dark, believing that by talking about ‘it’, we cultivate empathy & understanding.
moth to a flame
Gabriel von Max’s Der Anatom incorporates vanitas imagery and the symbol of the moth, forming a salon painting typical of the era, and indicative of a larger (and truly icky) predilection among artists to depict the corpse of a beautiful woman.
raft of the medusa
When Théodore Géricault’s painted The Raft of the Medusa (1818-9) he really committed 100%. He interviewed survivors, made a full-scale replica of the raft and – wait for it – borrowed body parts from the Hospital Beaujnon to create studies of decomposition.
angel of anatomy
In some kind of macabre burlesque act, Leonor Fini’s The Angel of Anatomy drops a mauve cloth away to reveal muscle and bone.