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Taking the story of Efisio Marini as its starting point, this paper argues that embalming and photography are materially and historically connected due to their chemical nature. Photography and modern embalming both originated in the “chemical complex” of the nineteenth century, i.e., the idea that nature and natural processes could be synthesized in the laboratory. As Ursula Klein and Wolfgang Lefèvre have remarked, eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century chemists experimented with materials, studied the possibilities for improving their production, examined their properties, explored their reactions, and analyzed their composition. Eighteenth-century chemistry, in their words, could be seen as the most authoritative science of materials. Marini’s story relates to this ontology of materials in that it refers to experiments with chemical substances and subsequent changes in their materiality and meaning.
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1
On Marini, cf. Antonio Maccioni, “Efisio Marini e la conquista dell’eternità,” Studi Sardi, 1992-3, 30: 683-692; Corrado Zedda and Luigi Serra, Il pietrificatore. Efisio Marini: Cagliari 1835-Napoli 1900 (Elmas: Grafiche Sainas, 2004). On Lay Rodríguez, cf. Piero Becchetti, Fotografi e Fotografia in Italia 1839-1880 (Rome: Quasar, 1978), p. 59. On Felice Uda, see Karl M. Sauer, Geschichte der italienischen Literatur von ihren Anfängen bis auf die neueste Zeit (Leipzig: W. Friedrich, 1883), p. 577.
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5
Cf. Daniel Morgan, “Rethinking Bazin: Ontology and Realist Aesthetics,” Critical Inquiry, 2006, 32 (3): 443-481, p. 446.
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7
Ursula Klein and Emma Spary, Materials and Expertise in Early Modern Europe. Between Market and Laboratory (Chicago: The Chicago University Press, 2010), p. 9.
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8
Thomas Pettigrew, A History of Egyptian Mummies: And an Account of the Worship and Embalming of the Sacred Animals by the Egyptians: with Remarks on the Funeral Ceremonies of Different Nations, and Observations on the Mummies of the Canary Islands, of the Ancient Peruvians, Burman Priests, Etc. (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1834), pp. 2-6; “Observations on the Practice of Embalming among the Ancient Egyptians, Illustrated by the Unrolling of a Mummy from Thebes, Presented to the Association by Joseph Arden, Esq., K.S.A. to the Worcester Congress,” The Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 1849, 4: 337-348; cf. Nicholas Daly, Modernism, Romance, and the Fin de Siècle: Popular Fiction and British Culture, 1880-1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
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10
Pettigrew, “Observations” (cit. note 8), p. 76; Anonym, “Des embaumens des Egyptiens,” Histoire de l’Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belle-Lettres, 1756, 23: 119-139; “Des Grafen von Caylus Betrachtungen über dem Embalsamiren der Ägypter,” Das Neueste aus der Anmuthigen Gelehrsamkeit, 1759, 1: 762-765.
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14
T. Frederick Hardwich, A Manual of Photographic Chemistry (New York: Humphrey, 1858), p. 10.
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15
Cf. Pierre Boitard, Nouveau Manuel Complet du Naturaliste Préparateur suivi d’un Traité des Embaumements (Paris: Roret, 1852). Later studies discarded the theory that natural bitumen was used by the Egyptians as an embalming substance. According to Lucas, the error was due to the fact that much of the material, especially in the later mummies, is black and looks quite like bitumen. Cf. Alfred Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries (London, 1948), pp. 348-352. Guaiacum, a genus native to the Americas, was introduced in Europe as an embalming compound in the sixteenth century.
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16
Simon Morelot, Histoire naturelle appliquée à la chimie, aux arts, aux différents genres de l’industrie et aux besoins personnels de la vie (Paris: Nicolle, 1809). Cf. also Marta Caraïon, Pour fixer la trace: Photographie, littérature et voyage au milieu du XIXe siècle (Genève: Droz, 2003).
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20
Gideon A. Mantell, Petrifactions and Their Teachings, or, a Hand-Book to the Gallery of Organic Remains of the British Museum (London: H.G. Bohn, 1851).
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23
Heinrich R. Göppert, “On the Condition of Fossil Plants, and the Process of Petrifaction,” The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 1837, 23: 73-82.
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24
James D. Dana, “On the Formation of Compound or Twin Crystals,” American Journal of Science, 1836, 30: 275-300.
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25
James D. Dana, A System of Mineralogy: Comprising the Most Recent Discoveries: Including Full Description of Species and Their Localities, Chemical Analyses and Formulas, Tables for the Determination of Minerals, and a Treatise on Mathematical Crystallography and the Drawing of Figures of Crystals (London and New York: Putman, 1837), p. 112.
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26
H. Göppert, “Über den Zustand, in welchem sich die fossilen Pflanzen befinden, und über den Versteinerungsprocess insbesondere,” Annalen der Pharmacie, 1837, 21-22: 48-62. On Göppert, cf. Meyers Konversationslexikon, 7, 4th ed. (Leipzig und Wien: Bibliographisches Institut, 1885-1892), p. 517. www.retrobibliothek.de/retrobib/seite.html?id=107004#Göppert (accessed 23 December 2011).
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27
C.G. Ehrenberg, “Farther preliminary notices regarding Fossil Infusoria,” The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 1836-7, 22: 84-90.
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29
Paolo Gorini, “Intorno la conservazione delle sostanze animali,” Il Politecnico, 1865, 24 (104): 120; R. Bernabeo, “Evoluzione delle conoscenze sulla mummificazione e pietrificazione dei cadaveri e dei pezzi anatomici a scopo conservativo e dimostrativo," Atti del XVI Congresso Nazionale dell Società Italiana della Medicina, Bologna-Ravenna, 1959 (Bologna: Società editrice Bolognese, 1960), pp. 131-137; Alberto Carli (ed.), Storia di uno Scienzato. La Collezione anatomica “Paolo Gorini” (Azzano San Paolo: Bolis, 2005); Luigi Messedaglia, “La ‘pietrificazione’ dei tessuti animali ed un emulo veronese di Girolamo Segato,” Atti e memoria dell’Accademia di Agricoltura, Scienze e Lettera di Verona, 1933: 1-33; Giovanni Orlandini, R. Tempestino, D. Lippi, F. Paternostro, S. Zecchi-Orlandini, and N. Villari, “Bodies of Stone: Girolamo Segato (1792-1836),” Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embryology, 2007, 112 (1): 13-18; S. Panzer, A. Carli, A. Zink, and D. Piombino-Mascali, “The Anatomical Collection of Giovan Battista Rini (1795-1856): a Paleoradiological Investigation,” Clinical Anatomy, 2011, doi: 10.1002/ca.21240, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ca.21240/full (accessed 14 September 2011); Bartolommeo Zanon, Della solidificazione dei corpi animali. Memoria (Belluno: Stamperia Deliberali, 1839); see also Dario Piombino-Mascali, “Oreste Maggio, un ‘Pietrificatore’ Palermitano,” Medicina & Storia, 2008, 8 (16): 169-177; Il Maestro del Sonno Eterno (Palermo: La Zisa, 2009).
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31
Giuseppe Pellegrini, Della artificiale Riduzione a Solidità Lapidea e Inalterabilità degli Animali, scoperta da Girolamo Segato (Padua: Cartallier, 1835); cf. Carlo Frigemelica, “La pietrificazione dei tessuti animali,” L’Illustrazione Scientifica, 1954, 53: 22-23.
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32
Oreste Nuzzi, “Pietrificazione artificiale dei corpi organici,” Atti della Società Italiana per il Progresso delle Scienze, 21st Meeting (Rome, 1932), 2 (Rome, 1933), p. 371.
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34
Frédéric Kuhlmann, “Force cristallogénique. Formation du spath calcaire, du sel gemme, du glaciers, etc.,” Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences, 1864, 58: 1036. The chemist F. Kuhlmann was the founder of one of the leading French chemical enterprises. His experiments with crystals were connected with the application of chemistry to the production of synthetic dyes.
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35
Efisio Marini, Idee di Paleontologia Generale (Cagliari: Tipografia Nazionale, 1861). I am indebted to Silvia Marinozzi for a copy of this pamphlet.
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37
E. Koller, “Die Versteinerung des Körpers. Bericht über eine merkwürdige Erfindung,” Bibliothek des Unterhaltung und des Wissens, 1900, 4: 96-111; Luigi Ferrara, “La survivance du corps. Transformation du corps humain en marbre,” Revue des revues, 1898: 237-256.
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40
Cf. Jay Ruby, Secure the Shadow: Death and Photography in America (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 1999); Stanley Burns, Sleeping Beauty II: Grief, Bereavement, and the Family in Memorial Photography. American & European Traditions (New York: Burns Archive Press, 2002); Mirko Orlando, Ripartire dagli Addii. Uno studio sulla fotografia post-mortem (Meda: MJM, 2010).
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Search for other papers by Irina Podgorny in
Current site
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Taking the story of Efisio Marini as its starting point, this paper argues that embalming and photography are materially and historically connected due to their chemical nature. Photography and modern embalming both originated in the “chemical complex” of the nineteenth century, i.e., the idea that nature and natural processes could be synthesized in the laboratory. As Ursula Klein and Wolfgang Lefèvre have remarked, eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century chemists experimented with materials, studied the possibilities for improving their production, examined their properties, explored their reactions, and analyzed their composition. Eighteenth-century chemistry, in their words, could be seen as the most authoritative science of materials. Marini’s story relates to this ontology of materials in that it refers to experiments with chemical substances and subsequent changes in their materiality and meaning.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 620 | 94 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 140 | 4 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 55 | 14 | 0 |
