LE MACCHINE ANATOMICHE DELLA CAPPELLA SANSEVERO: CONSIDERAZIONI STORICHE E PALEOPATOLOGICHE

The Anatomical Machines are, together with the Veiled Christ, tightly linked to the Chapel and the history of its patron, Raimondo di Sangro, 7th prince of Sansevero. Currently exhibited in the subterranean cavea of the Cappella Sansevero and protected in wooden and glass cases, they were commissioned to the Sicilian physician Giuseppe Salerno in the second half of the eighteenth century. The Anatomical Machines of the Sansevero Chapel are represented by two bodies. These two skeletons, a man and a pregnant woman, are surrounded by their own circulatory system. Over the centuries, Sansevero’s anatomical machines have been the main characters of legends and superstitions, representing a marvellous example of science and art. Legend has it that the models were the outcome of an operation of human taxidermy in which two servants were killed through the injection of embalming substances in their blood vessels.