Honoré Fragonard

Honoré Fragonard ( born June 13, 1732 in Grasse, † April 5, 1799 in Charenton -le- Pont) was a French anatomist and first director of the Veterinary School opened in 1766 Ecole d' Alfort vétérinaire. His Ecorches, anatomical specimens, in which the internal organs and skeleton are preserved with removal of the skin, are the most important exhibits of the history of medicine museum Musée Fragonard.

Biography

Honoré Fragonard, a cousin of the painter Jean- Honoré Fragonard was born in Grasse in southern France in 1732. Fragonard was the son of a perfumer and glover, but went through training as a surgeon, which he completed in 1759. In 1762 he found employment as a professor of anatomy, which was founded by Claude Bourgelat Veterinary School in Lyon. There he began to make anatomical preparations. In 1765 he went on the initiative Bourgelats with some students to Paris, to establish another veterinary school. This installed himself as École vétérinaire 1766 Alfort, Fragonard became its first director. In his role as professor of anatomy, he oversaw the Cabinet du Roi, the anatomical collection, and extended it with many self-made objects. 1771, after intense differences with Bourgelat, who exercised a superintendence of the school, he was fired.

Fragonard continued his work as an anatomist and sold with some success his preparations. He took an active part in the French Revolution and had an expression of the high esteem in which enjoyed the medicine, in 1793 a seat in the national art jury alongside his cousin Jean- Honoré Fragonard and Jacques -Louis David. In 1794 he took over the inventory of French anatomy collections, including the former Cabinet du Roi of the Veterinary School in Alfort belonged. Their union into a national institution did not succeed. 1795 Fragonard entered as the last, little documented work before his death the post of Director of the anatomical department at the newly founded in 1794 École de Santé de Paris.

Fragonard Ecorches

The anatomical preparations, which justified Fragonard's reputation, his Ecorches. Thereby to remove the internal organs and the skin, the skeleton of human or animal bodies or parts of the body have been conserved. Fragonard not documented the applied type of technology. According to scientific studies that have been made after 2003, it was similar to that which his contemporary Jean -Joseph Sue ( 1710-1792 ) in his treatise Anthropotomie ou l' Art de disséquer, d' embaumer et de conserver les parties du corps humain ( " Anthropotomie or the art of dissecting human body parts to embalm and preserve ", Paris 1750) described. Here, the body in seven steps heated, the blood is replaced by a special fluid from sheep fat, pine resin, turpentine and essential oils and the body or the body parts after they were brought into the desired position, a procedure of soaking in alcohol and subsequent drying subjected to be last colored lifelike and to obtain as protection against insect attack a varnish of Venetian turpentine.

Of the estimated 700 Ecorches still 21 pieces available, almost all are in the Musée Fragonard medical history museum. In the preparations used as a scientific demonstration objects, the philosophical trend of vitalism suggests, as in the emphasis of the blood vessels and nerves. Some preparations, whose layout evidently more weight was placed on the artistic and emotional impact, are in the tradition of the Kunstkammer objects and are biblical or allegorical, about the vanitas motif charged. This is especially the case with a rider on a galloping horse, a man with a chin cheek in his hand as a representation of Samson, as well as fetuses that were prepared in movement or dance poses and loud traditional descriptions were arranged as a group. According to legend, it is in the equestrian figure of the deceased before the wedding fiancee Fragonard, which he is said to have prepared themselves. In fact, it is the preserved corpse of a man, as can be seen on a penis rest.

Bibliography

• Christophe Degueurce: Honoré Fragonard et ses Ecorches. Un anatomiste au siècle des Lumières. Éd. RMN, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-7118-5748-7