Anatomical Venuses

Anatomical Venuses, also known as slashed beauties or dissected graces, are female wax models primarily from the 18th and 19th century. They were used to study human anatomy without having to dissect a real body. Some were "demountable", or able to be taken apart into multiple pieces, while others showed the body in a single stage of dissection.

Above is my personal favorite anatomical venus. I found this image of her on this Reddit post, which doesn't specifically identify her. But I'm pretty confident I found her in my copy of Joanna Ebenstein's The Anatomical Venus, because I noticed the same scratch on her arm. The book says that she is a half scale model made at La Specola, which was well known for its wax figures. It is believed that she was used as a study for the famous fully dissectable Medici Venus.

Further Research

Anatomical models and wax Venuses: art masterpieces or scientific craft works?
Ode to an Anatomical Venus
La Specola Anatomical Collection

(Above photo found on this blog. Unable to source.)

(Above photo by Joanna Ebenstein, from Madame Tussauds Archives.)