Title: Opera di cera
Description: "Kelley Swain takes us to 18th-century Florence, where the Museum of Physics and Natural History is creating its most famous waxwork, the anatomical Venus: a life-sized female figure who comes apart to reveal a foetus in the womb. Yet behind the exquisite craftsmanship and beauty of the finished waxwork lies an extraordinary tale; a macabre romance which plunges the reader into a sensual underworld of gluttony and lust, perfection and power. The fates of model, modeller, Museum Director and the deformed porter Cintio are soon intertwined; but who is watching whom as the Venus nears completion?"--Publisher's Web-site.
Subjects: Waxworks, Fiction, History, Anatomic Models, Poetry (poetic works by one author), Reale Museo di fisica e storia naturale (Florence, Italy)
Places: Italy, Florence, Florence (Italy)
Time periods: 18th century