Unknown English artist

Model of a female, half skeletal, half living, c.1810–30, Wood, metal, wax, Model: 27.3 x 6.4 x 6.2 cm, Science Museum Group Collection; A78828, Courtesy of the Science and Society Picture Library

Beneath the Skin

Commentary by Christina Juliet Faraday

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Face to face with our own mortality, the absurdity of our vanities is here rendered minutely in wax. One half a wealthy, well-dressed woman, the other half a decaying skeleton: beneath the fine clothes, the silk, the skin, we are all fragile flesh and bones. Was this wax model created as a spur to meditate on our ultimate state? A darkly-comic reminder of the absurdity of worldly trappings? Or even as a teaching aid for students of anatomy?

And you, O desolate one, what do you mean that you dress in scarlet, that you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your eyes with paint? In vain you beautify yourself. (Jeremiah 4:30)

In Jeremiah’s eyes, the figure would no doubt have illustrated the absurdity of worldly vanities, the futility of any attempt to adorn and beautify oneself with external ornaments. But in the context of his apocalyptic imagery, we might also think of the damage that the modern pursuit of wealth and beauty has wreaked on the environment. No longer worshipping false idols in the form of a golden calf, our admiration has transferred simply to gold—to the luxury and comforts money can bring.

The prophet asks, ‘How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?’ The model manifests a kind of living dissection: it presents us with an opportunity to look inside ourselves, a spur to appraise honestly our hearts, our motives, our way of living.

But if we truly regret the damage that humanity’s covetousness has caused in the world, what should we do? In the face of the destruction wrought by the Lord, Jeremiah orders the inhabitants to ‘gird [themselves] with sackcloth’ (v.8), a striking counterpoint to the scarlet and gold-bedecked costume that the covetous sinner dons in verse 30. The instruction implies a kind of stripping down, a rejection of excess and impurity, akin to his other recommendations to ‘circumcise’ the heart and ‘wash your heart from wickedness’ (vv.4, 14). Could those of us with many possessions benefit from a simpler existence?

 

References

Matthews David, Alison. 2015. Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present (London: Bloomsbury)

 

 

See full exhibition for Jeremiah 4

Jeremiah 4

Revised Standard Version

4“If you return, O Israel,

says the Lord,

to me you should return.

If you remove your abominations from my presence,

and do not waver,

2and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’

in truth, in justice, and in uprightness,

then nations shall bless themselves in him,

and in him shall they glory.”

3 For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem:

“Break up your fallow ground,

and sow not among thorns.

4Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,

remove the foreskin of your hearts,

O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;

lest my wrath go forth like fire,

and burn with none to quench it,

because of the evil of your doings.”

5 Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,

“Blow the trumpet through the land;

cry aloud and say,

‘Assemble, and let us go

into the fortified cities!’

6Raise a standard toward Zion,

flee for safety, stay not,

for I bring evil from the north,

and great destruction.

7A lion has gone up from his thicket,

a destroyer of nations has set out;

he has gone forth from his place

to make your land a waste;

your cities will be ruins

without inhabitant.

8For this gird you with sackcloth,

lament and wail;

for the fierce anger of the Lord

has not turned back from us.”

9“In that day, says the Lord, courage shall fail both king and princes; the priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded.” 10Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, surely thou hast utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘It shall be well with you’; whereas the sword has reached their very life.”

11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse, 12a wind too full for this comes for me. Now it is I who speak in judgment upon them.”

13Behold, he comes up like clouds,

his chariots like the whirlwind;

his horses are swifter than eagles—

woe to us, for we are ruined!

14O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness,

that you may be saved.

How long shall your evil thoughts

lodge within you?

15For a voice declares from Dan

and proclaims evil from Mount Eʹphraim.

16Warn the nations that he is coming;

announce to Jerusalem,

“Besiegers come from a distant land;

they shout against the cities of Judah.

17Like keepers of a field are they against her round about,

because she has rebelled against me,

says the Lord.

18Your ways and your doings

have brought this upon you.

This is your doom, and it is bitter;

it has reached your very heart.”

19My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!

Oh, the walls of my heart!

My heart is beating wildly;

I cannot keep silent;

for I hear the sound of the trumpet,

the alarm of war.

20Disaster follows hard on disaster,

the whole land is laid waste.

Suddenly my tents are destroyed,

my curtains in a moment.

21How long must I see the standard,

and hear the sound of the trumpet?

22“For my people are foolish,

they know me not;

they are stupid children,

they have no understanding.

They are skilled in doing evil,

but how to do good they know not.”

23I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void;

and to the heavens, and they had no light.

24I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking,

and all the hills moved to and fro.

25I looked, and lo, there was no man,

and all the birds of the air had fled.

26I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert,

and all its cities were laid in ruins

before the Lord, before his fierce anger.

27 For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.

28For this the earth shall mourn,

and the heavens above be black;

for I have spoken, I have purposed;

I have not relented nor will I turn back.”

29At the noise of horseman and archer

every city takes to flight;

they enter thickets; they climb among rocks;

all the cities are forsaken,

and no man dwells in them.

30And you, O desolate one,

what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,

that you deck yourself with ornaments of gold,

that you enlarge your eyes with paint?

In vain you beautify yourself.

Your lovers despise you;

they seek your life.

31For I heard a cry as of a woman in travail,

anguish as of one bringing forth her first child,

the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,

stretching out her hands,

“Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers.”

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