# Queer Anatomies: Aesthetics and Desire in the Anatomical Image, 1700-1900

Michael Sappol examines anatomical drawings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for traces of desire. Published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts in 2024, the book treats anatomical drawing as a space between science and art, precise and informative yet often theatrical and playful. Its subject is the subtle eroticism of certain illustrations and the queerness of the men who made, used and collected them, at a time when same-sex desire was kept out of print.

Sappol gives close readings of work by Gautier d'Agoty, William Cheselden, Joseph Maclise and others, placing medical history, connoisseurship, queer studies and art history in conversation. The full-colour reproductions range from brilliant, accurate renderings to barely competent work, including dissected bodies, genitalia, hands and male viewers gazing at naked figures.

## Books in this series (1)

- Vol. 1 — [Queer Anatomies: Aesthetics and Desire in the Anatomical Image, 1700-1900](https://mybookbandits.com/books/9781350400870) (ISBN 9781350400870)

---

Browse this series at [MyBookBandits](https://mybookbandits.com/series/queer-anatomies-aesthetics-and-desire-in-the-anatomical-image-1700-1900).