The female wax portraits had long puzzled researchers: Nobly dressed, she holds a scalped brain in her lap. The portrait stands amid a anatomical models that were considered innovative for 18th century medicine. A lost document now reveals her extraordinary story: her relationship to the pope and the 80 casts of male sexual organs that turn conventional ideas upside down.
Wax portraits of an unknown woman are the focus of this medical-historical thriller which turns rigid 18th century role models on its head.
The female wax portraits had long puzzled researchers: Nobly dressed, she holds a scalped brain in her lap. The portrait stands amid a anatomical models that were considered innovative for 18th century medicine.
A lost document now reveals her extraordinary story: her relationship to the pope and the 80 casts of male sexual organs that turn conventional ideas upside down.