In centuries past, sexual body-parts and same-sex desire were un­men­­tionables de­barred from polite conver­sa­tion and printed discourse. Yet one scientific discipline-ana­to­my-had license to rep­re­sent and nar­rate the in­timate details of the human body-anus and genitals in­clud­ed. Figured with­in the frame of an anatomical plate, pre­sen­ta­tions of dissected bo­dies and body-parts were often soberly tech­ni­cal. But just as often mon­strous, provoca­tive, flirtatious, theatri­cal, beau­tiful, and even sensual. Queer Anatomies explores overlooked examples of erotic expression within 18th and 19th-century anatomical imagery. It uncovers the subtle eroticism of certain anatomical illustrations, and the queerness of the men who made, used and collected them.As a foundational subject for physicians, surgeons and artists in 18th- and 19th-century Europe, anatomy was a privileged, male-dominated domain. Artistic and medical compe­tence depended on a deep knowledge of anatomy and offered cultural legitimacy, healing authority, and aesthetic discernment to those who practiced it. The anatomical image could serve as a virtual queer space, a private or shared closet, or a men's club. Serious anatomical subjects were charged with erotic, often homoerotic, undertones.Taking brilliant works by Gautier Dagoty, William Cheselden, and Joseph Maclise, and many others, Queer Anatomies assembles a lost archive of queer expression-115 illustra­tions, in full-colour reproduction-that range from images of nudes, dissected bodies, penises, vaginas, rectums, hands, faces, and skin, to scenes of male viewers gazing upon works of art governed by anatomical principles. Yet the men who produced and savored illustrated anatomies were reticent, closeted. Diving into these textual and represen­ta­tional spaces via essayistic reflection, Queer Anatomies decodes their words and images, even their silences. With a range of close readings and com­par­ison of key images, this book unearths the connections between medical history, connoisseur­ship, queer studies, and art history and the understudied relationship between anatomy and desire.

Anatomical drawing is a perennially popular module that appears on fine art, art history and medical humanities courses

List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsPart One: The unbearable queerness of anatomyIntroduction1.1.1 A queer ventriloquism act1.1.2 An advisory, an acknowledgmentTheory1.2.1 Queer explains everyone1.2.2 Queer history1.2.3 The gaze and its objects1.2.4 Proliferating views, intensified viewing1.2.5 A­n odd term1.2.6 Default genders of anatomy1.2.7 Homoerotics queered1.2.8 The epistemology of the anatomical closetObjects1.3.1 Mystery men, mute images1.3.2 The mystery penis1.3.3 The penis and medical eyes1.3.4 The closet's edgePart Two: Connoisseurship, taste and "the beauty of the plate"Gautier2.1.1 Hungry eyes, science and the anatomical mezzotint2.1.2 Anatomical provocations and the sensesCheselden2.2.1 "The beauty of the plate"2.2.2 What is beautiful?2.2.3 Connoisseurial judgment and anatomy2.2.4 Cheselden's figures2.2.5 Cheselden the man2.2.6 The learning curve2.2.7 Headbutting disputationBetween Men2.3.1 Between men: connoisseurs, collectors and anatomy2.3.2 Conversations and "conversation pieces"2.3.3 Eyes on the connoisseurial gaze2.3.4 Between men: a continuum of attachments2.3.5 Between men: surgical masculinity and objectsPart Three: "Overshadowed by the artist": Mr Joseph Maclise's queer anatomyPrologue: Nicolas-Henri Jacob3.1 Medical eyes, surgical handsJoseph Maclise3.2 The mystery of Mr Joseph Maclise3.2.1 Misters Quain and Maclise3.2.2 Queer bedroom scenes3.2.3 Irrelevant penises (a gallery)3.2.4 Touching representation3.2.5 Cascading rhymes3.2.6 The anus compared3.2.7 Maclise's men: An imaginary confraternity?3.2.8 Race and Maclise's radical (queer) philosophy of universalist embodiment3.2.9 Heteronormative queer3.2.10 A crucifixion3.2.11 How did Quain and Maclise get on?3.2.12 Comparative anatomies: predecessors, contemporaries3.2.13 The queer figure study3.2.14 The locked atlas and locked closetAppendix3.3 Maclise's long goodbyeConclusion: The ontology of the anatomical closetBibliographyIndex