MOM 2006 journal for pdf.pmd - University of Michigan-Flint

are borrowed directly from the visual canon of art history. Full body plastinates, such as Whole Body
Plastinate with Skin (Fig. 1); a realist portrayal of Michelangelo’s flayed depiction of St. Bartholomew
in Last Judgment (Fig. 2); Rearing Horse and Rider (Fig. 3); a classical equestrian motif reminiscent
of Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps (Fig. 4); and Reclining Woman in the 8th Month
of Pregnancy, an odalisque/reclining nude (Fig. 5) are examples of von Hagen’s ambition to replicate
others’ formal achievements. The attempts made by von Hagen to contextualize the plastinates within
established historical art monumentality, while legitimizing the ‘artistry’ of the work, can be construed
as disparaging to the canon and satirizing the art object.
Meeting of Minds 2006 125