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Cat Irving

@anatomicalcat.bsky.social

Human Remains Conservator at Surgeons’ Hall. Snake charmer. Beagle feeder. All-round general necromancer

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Daniel Pietersen@pietersender.bsky.social · 4w ago

A very happy wedding anniversary to my beloved Contessa, pictured here lying in wait for an unsuspecting maid. Whether she’s terrorising the staff or terrifying the villages, nobody else could do it with the same level of aplomb, élan or, indeed, aggression.

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Cat Irving@anatomicalcat.bsky.social · 3mo ago

A wax model showing the muscles of the torso and head made by surgeon André-Pierre Pinson in the late eighteenth century. It’s currently on display in the Musée de l’Homme, Paris.

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Cat Irving@anatomicalcat.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I’m going to be a very busy bee for the next two weeks, so if you’re in Edinburgh and Glasgow and want to see me waving my arms around like this while telling tales from the history of anatomy there are no less than FOUR opportunities to do so!

A red haired woman in a black dress walking either arms outstretched with an image of lithotomy on the screen behind her
Cat Irving@anatomicalcat.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The top of Charles Darwin’s memento mori walking stick, which he used as he got older to remind himself of the preciousness of life. Currently on display at the Wellcome Collection as part of their exhibition ‘The Coming of Age’.

A skull carved out of whale bone/ivory with green jewels on the eye sockets. Against a geeen background
Cat Irving@anatomicalcat.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Just hit ‘send’ on the first draft! CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD: The Lives of Human Remains to be published by HarperCollins (UK) and St Martin’s Press (North America) in Spring 2028.

A laptop screen with the words CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD: The Lives of Human Remains by Cat Irving
Cat Irving@anatomicalcat.bsky.social · 3mo ago

It’s been a busy couple of weeks and in the midst of it all this beautiful new book on the wax models of the Josephinum in Vienna winged its way to me! Now my Friday evening is being spent enjoying its company 🖤

A book called the beauty of anatomy with a purplish cover featuring an anatomical Venus. Sitting on a woods table with a plant pot in the shape of a skull behind The previous book open to a double page spread of a reckoning flayed male figure seen from two angles
Cat Irving@anatomicalcat.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Fell a bit in love with Serena Korda’s Wild Apples in the Wellcome Collection today. It uses the bodies of perimenopausal, menopausal and post-menopausal women to respond to the wax Anatomical Venuses I’ve talked about here in the past.

A sitting and a standing ceramic female figure, they are both turquoise and have half their heads anatomised. The standing figure has their abdomen opened and has their hand outstretched holding an apple The previous standing figure viewed from the front. A different view of the first seated figure with a different anatomised figure in the background
Cat Irving@anatomicalcat.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The bone crypt of Rothwell Holy Trinity Church. It’s been a few years since I was last here so think I’m about due a return visit. The crypt itself dates to the early thirteenth century, and would have been used to store bones dug up from the graveyard to make way for new graves.

An arched vault with a pile of bones in front of shelves of skulls
Cat Irving@anatomicalcat.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A wax model showing the skin reflected back and the top section of the skull removed to reveal the brain. It was one of the many beautiful models made by Joseph Towne during his fifty-three years working at Guy’s hospital in the nineteenth century

A wax model showing a head severed at the neck. The face is of a man with eye closed and lips slightly open. The skin is pulled down, shading the eyes. The brain can be seen. The model is on an ebonised base against a background of Yves Klein blue.
Cat Irving@anatomicalcat.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Artists have long studied anatomy to try and make their work more realistic. In 1801 sculptor Thomas Banks and painters Benjamin West and Richard Cosway decided to look at the anatomical accuracy of depictions of Christ being crucified.

A pale brick wall with a black crucifix mounted on it. On the crucifix is a flayed plaster figure.