I preparati di Girolamo Segato. Seno di giovane donna "pietrificato", 1823 - 36
dried textile and drape

Musei Biomedici Università degli Studi di Firenze – Sezione di Anatomia

Known as “il pietrificatore” (the petrifier), scientist and artist Girolamo Segato devoted his entire life to perfecting a formula for the mineralisation of human tissues. Although his scientific activity and fascination with the transformation of matter might prompt some to qualify him as a latter-day alchemist, Segato’s artistic production shows that he was also a keen observer of the aesthetic taste of his time. His female figures are in line with the widely successful canons used in those years – the petrified breast on display here is in fact an explicit reference to the funerary monuments made by naturalist sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini.