In the Underground Chamber of the Sansevero Chapel, housed in two glass cases, are the famous Anatomical Machines, i.e. the skeletons of a man and a woman in an upright position with their arteriovenous system almost perfectly intact.
c. 1756-64
c. 1756-64
The Machines were made by Palermo doctor Giuseppe Salerno, and some recently brought to light eighteenth-century sources attest that the male anatomical machine was purchased in 1756 by Raimondo di Sangro following a public exhibition that the Sicilian pathologist held in Naples.
The prince took Salerno into his employ and, granting him a substantial annual pension, commissioned him to make the other anatomical machine.
A source describes the Machines in detail, from the blood vessels of the head to those of the tongue and adds that at the feet of the woman was placed “the tiny body of a foetus”, alongside which there was even the open placenta, connected to the foetus by the umbilical cord.
The two anatomical studies were moved to the Chapel, and in this way saved from destruction or loss, long after the death of the Prince. The remains of the fetus were still visible up to a few decades ago, when they were stolen.
The two Anatomical Machines are among the most enigmatic exhibits in the monumental complex. Even today, over two hundred and fifty years later, the debate continues on the procedures and materials used to obtain such excellent preservation of the circulatory apparatus.
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