- chapter 59: Science as art –
Figure 59.1 Male votive head, from Veii. Antikensammlung, Inv. Inv. T III-30 (formerly Sammlung
Stieda), Giessen. Photo Matthias Recke.Figure 59.2 Female votive head (half-head), from Veii. Antikensammlung, Inv. T III-36 (formerly
Sammlung Stieda), Giessen. Photo Matthias Recke.A special feature of the Etruscan-Italic anatomical votives (and in fact strictly limited to
these cultures) is the dedication of reproductions of human internal organs.^8 The range of
the representations is very large. Among the most elaborate are certainly the statues and
busts of worshippers in which a window-like opening into the (clothed) body (see Fig.
59.7) furnishes a view of the interior and shows the internal organs.
Torsos without limbs or head in contrast are always nude (see Figs. 59.13, 59.15 and
59.16). Plaques with internal organs, blocks of viscera, or individual organs, especially
heart, bladder, uterus (sometimes with additional body/appendix?) (Fig. 59.5, see Fig.
59.9); other organs such as lungs, liver, stomach and intestines as a rule only appear
in association with the polyvisceral plaques, the ensembles of organs, or the models
with open abdomens. There is a question of the interpretation of tubular-oval objects as