Gaetano Giulio Zumbo (1656–1701) was an Italian sculptor in wax or wax modeller of the Baroque era. His primary talents were not those generally considered as artistic but devoted to the creation of scientific models that were highly regarded as curiosity pieces in his time. He has also been called an anatomist. He was born in Siracusa,

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, and showed an entirely self-taught inclination to the sculptural arts and anatomy. Not familiar with chiseling, he learned to model colored wax. This led to his patronage by the Grand Duke of Tuscany in Florence, for whom he created a series of five morbid models, almost a memento mori, depicting the progressive ''Corruption'' after death, beginning with a dying man, followed by a corpse, a corpse just starting to decompose, half corrupt, another completely corrupt, and finally eaten by worms. Once displayed in the Medici gallery, it was later transferred to the cabinet of natural history and zoological specimens (now displayed in the Section of the Natural History Museum called

La Specola The Museum of Zoology and Natural History, best known as La Specola, is an eclectic natural history museum in Florence, central Italy, located next to the Pitti Palace. The name '' Specola'' means observatory, a reference to the astronomical obser ...

). Zumbo left

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

for

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

. There he completed wax sculptures: a Nativity and a Deposition. He formed a partnership with a French surgeon, Guillaume Desnoues, and with him completed a number of anatomical studies, including a woman who died while in childbirth. With Denoues, he travelled to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, and at the Academy of Sciences presented a wax sculpture of the head with naturalistic depiction of veins, arteries, nerves, glands, and muscles. Similar work by

Giuseppe Salerno Giuseppe Salerno, more commonly called ''il Zoppo di Gangi'' (Cripple from the town of Gangi) (1588-1630) was an Italian painter active in his native Sicily in a Mannerist style. He may have used the title of ''Zoppo'' because he was a pupil of G ...

is in the

Sansevero Chapel The Cappella Sansevero (also known as the Cappella Sansevero de' Sangri or Pietatella) is a chapel located on Via Francesco de Sanctis 19, just northwest of the church of San Domenico Maggiore, in the historic center of Naples, Italy. The chapel ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. The central character of the novel ''Secrecy'' (2013) by

Rupert Thomson Rupert Thomson, FRSL (born November 5, 1955) is an English writer. He is the author of thirteen critically acclaimed novels and an award-winning memoir. He has lived in many cities around the world, including Athens, Berlin, New York, Sydney, ...

, is based on Zumbo.Rupert Thomson
" Fugitive Pieces"
''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

'', March 1, 2013, accessed 15 March 2014.

Sources

External links

* 1656 births 1701 deaths Italian anatomists 17th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors People from Syracuse, Sicily {{Italy-sculptor-stub