Horror, Sleaze and Trash.

anatomicdeadspace:

The Punished Suicide is a morbid piece of art preserved by anatomist Lodovico Brunetti, who was the chair of Anatomical Pathology at the University of Padova in 1863. He learned of a local suicide where the girl, who was only 18 years old at the time of her death, jumped into the river behind the city hospital and died. He requested that her remains be sent to him, and he used them to create the piece above - using his own special method of preservation called ‘tannization’. The presence of the snakes was the result of large lacerations in her skin from where hooks had hauled her body from the water, the snakes were placed in order to hide them. The piece was meant to depict the punishment awaiting those who completed suicide whenever they arrived in hell.
The first thing Brunetti did once he had finished the piece was show the remains to the girls parents. While this may appear to be cruel, her parents were actually delighted with the piece, impressed by Brunetti’s ability to capture and preserve their daughters appearance.