To Have and To Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting
Angelus Novus
Chapter Overview
- Dr Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1830), a German Physiologist, made the discovery that different types of brain activity are located in different parts of the brain.
- As a result, Gall believed that parts of the brain that were more developed than others impacted the growth of a person's skull.
- Gall collected numerous human skulls as well as plaster casts, from both the living and deceased, as a way of studying the development of the brain and its impact on skull growth and shape.
- The science of phrenology, the study of a person's skull size as a means of measuring mental capacity, became both extremely popular and controversial. As a result Austria's Catholic Emperor, Franz II, prohibited the teaching of the science anywhere.
Image 1
Napoleon Death Mask
The Chapter mentions that Dr. Gall happened to have a collection of plaster casts. Most of the faces are molded from criminals or those deemed insane. However, Gall happened to have several belonging to some well known people of the time, Napoleon being one of them.
There exists however, not one but two official "Death Masks" belonging to Napoleon. The actual masks themselves are a mystery due to the fact that there is very limited documentation of why they exist in the first place. To this day historians have found minimal evidence that points them in the direction of the mask's origin.
Sources
https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/close-up/napoleons-death-mask/
https://library.unc.edu/wilson/gallery/napoleon/
https://ageofrevolution.org/200-object/death-mask-of-napoleon/
Image 2
Crown of Angelo Solimon
Another of Gall's notable plaster casts included Angelo Solimon, a Nigerian slave sold into Austria during the 1700s. Solimon eventually befriended the Governor of Lombardy and became a soldier for the army. After many years of military campaigns Solimon found himself in Hungary with the Governor as he passed. Solimon then entered the house of Prince Wenzel von Liechtenstein and settled in Austria for good.
In paintings of Solimon, such as the one above, he is depicted with a notable crown. The crown pictured above is comprised of red, blue, and white ostrich feathers. This object is relevant to the reading as Dr. Gall, who had a plaster cast of Angelo Solimon, may have not been aware of the object that sat upon his head.
Sources
https://thafcc.wordpress.com/2015/04/24/distinguished-africans-in-early-northern-and-central-europe-part-2/
https://germanhistory-intersections.org/en/knowledge-and-education/ghis:image-46
Image 3
Brain and Nerve Drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo Da Vinci is widely known for his many accomplishments and achievements across several disciplines during the Renaissance era. However, one of Da Vinci's lesser known works is a series of drawings of the human brain and nerves. Da Vinci's fascination with the brain came in the late 1400s into the 1500s which is the time he began to create these diagrams.
I found this piece not only extremely interesting but relevant to the reading. At the time when Gall began to study phrenology neuroscience and psychology both extremely young disciplines. However, Da Vinci, nearly 300 years before was already making discoveries about human brain physiology and neuroscience. It is even possible that Gall discoveries or theories can even be traced back to some of Leonardo Da Vinci's work or theories.
Sources
https://dana.org/article/the-hidden-neuroscience-of-leonardo-da-vinci/
https://www.rct.uk/collection/919127/the-brain
https://neurosciencenews.com/da-vinci-brain-knowledge-11070/
