[Cross-section of a Male Torso]

ExpandFavorite

Titles

[Cross-section of a Male Torso]

Datec. 1910

MediumCyanotype

DimensionsImage: 35 3/8 × 13 3/4 in. (89.9 × 34.9 cm)
Sheet: 35 3/8 × 13 3/4 in. (89.9 × 34.9 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Joan Morgenstern in honor of Dr. Gilbert Lechenger

Object number2014.681

Not on view

Explore Further

Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionSince its invention, photography has had a dual nature as both art and science, which have never been mutually exclusive. This cyanotype was part of a series in which cadavers were frozen and then thinly sliced by an anonymous physician, either from side to side or from front to back. In a process not fully understood, the slice was probably put on glass and contact printed to a negative. Then the negatives of the frozen segments were eventually printed on large cyanotype sheets, providing a life-size, accurate record of the position of organs and bones in that particular section. This image is of a slice toward the back half of a male body.
Provenance[Alex Novak, Chalfont, Pennsylvania]; [Daniel Wolf]; [L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2014.
Exhibition History“Shadows on the Wall: Cameraless Photography from 1851 to Today” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, August 31– November 30, 2014.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.