93. The Medical Nude in the Long Nineteenth Century

The nude is an art-historical stress test. As Lynda Nead tells us, it stands at the pinnacle of fine art and yet is always in danger of slipping into the unacceptable, the obscene. This dual identity has made it of central importance to the methodological development of aesthetics and connoisseurship in the nineteenth century, and feminist art history in the late twentieth. This panel proposes that the nude is once again needed as art historians test the capacities of a new methodological approach: the medical humanities.

The nineteenth century saw science and medicine radically reshape understandings of the body and its relation to identity. The nude, science and medicine were deeply entangled in fine art, in epistemic images, and in print cultures. But only recently have art historians and historians of science and medicine considered these interactions. How can the medical humanities reframe our understanding of the age-old art-historical concept of the nude? In what ways did science and medicine make use of the nude in constructing notions of race, class, gender, sexuality, morality and beauty?

This session will explore the extent and importance of the overdue conversation between the idealised body in fine art and the scientised body in medicine. We welcome papers on any aspect of the medical nude in the long nineteenth century. We are especially interested in constructing an interdisciplinary and global narrative, exploring all kinds of visual material of the medical nude from a range of perspectives.

Themes: Nude, Medical Humanities, Nineteenth Century

Additional format comments: This panel will include four papers of 15 minutes with 10 minutes for questions. We have opted for shorter papers to facilitate discussion between panellists and audience on the role of the nude in the methodological development of art history more broadly.

Lead Convenor: Rebecca Whiteley, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom

Co-convenors: Hannah Halliwell, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

To submit a Paper to this Session, please follow the guidance on our website and complete the AAH 2027 Call for Papers Proposal Submission Form.