The Musée Fragonard d'Alfort, often simply the Musée Fragonard, is a museum of anatomical oddities located within the École Nationale Vétérinaire de Maisons-Alfort, 7 avenue du Général de Gaulle, in

Maisons-Alfort Maisons-Alfort () is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Maisons-Alfort is famous as the location of the National Veterinary School of Alfort. The Fort de Charenton, constructed betw ...

, a suburb of Paris. It is open several days per week in the cooler months; an admission fee is charged. The École Nationale Vétérinaire de Maisons-Alfort is one of the world's oldest

veterinary school Veterinary education is the tertiary education of veterinarians. To become a veterinarian, one must first complete a veterinary degree in Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM , V.M.D. , BVS, BVSc, BVMS, BVM, cand.med.vet). In the United States and ...

s, and the museum, created in 1766 with the school, is among France's oldest. The museum attracted incredible international attention since the school's founding and was a critical component of the school's identity in the eighteenth century. It opened to the public in 1991, and today consists of three rooms containing a large collection of anatomical oddities and dissections, most of which date from the 19th and early 20th centuries. In addition to animal skeletons and dissections, such as a piglet displayed in cross-section, the museum contains a substantial collection of monstrosities (

teratology Teratology is the study of abnormalities of physiological development in organisms during their life span. It is a sub-discipline in medical genetics which focuses on the classification of congenital abnormalities in dysmorphology. The relate ...

) including Siamese twin lambs, a two-headed calf, a 10-legged sheep, and a colt with one huge eye. The museum's most astonishing items are the famous "écorchés" (flayed figures) prepared by

Honoré Fragonard Honoré Fragonard (13 June 1732 – 5 April 1799) was a French anatomist, now remembered primarily for his remarkable collection of '' écorchés'' (flayed figures) in the Musée Fragonard d'Alfort. Fragonard was born in Grasse as cousin ...

, the school's first professor of anatomy, appointed in 1766 and in 1771 dismissed from the school as a madman. His speciality was the preparation and preservation of skinned cadavers, of which he prepared some 700 examples. Only 21 remain; all are on display in the museum's final room. These exhibits include: * The Horseman of the Apocalypse - based on Albrecht Dürer's print, it consists of a man on a horse, both flayed, surrounded by a crowd of small human

foetus A fetus or foetus (; plural fetuses, feti, foetuses, or foeti) is the unborn offspring that develops from an animal embryo. Following embryonic development the fetal stage of development takes place. In human prenatal development, fetal develo ...

es riding sheep and horse foetuses. * Monkeys - A small monkey, clapping, accompanied by another monkey holding a nut in hand. * The Man with a Mandible - inspired by

Samson Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...

attacking the

Philistines The Philistines ( he, פְּלִשְׁתִּים, Pəlīštīm; Koine Greek (LXX): Φυλιστιείμ, romanized: ''Phulistieím'') were an ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan from the 12th century BC until 604 BC, whe ...

with an ass's jaw. * Human foetuses dancing a jig - three human foetuses, arteries injected with wax. * Goat chest - a

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

's dissected trunk and head. * Human head - blood vessels injected with coloured wax; blue for the veins, red for the arteries. * Dissection of a human arm - a teaching exhibit, with muscles and nerves separated, and blood vessels injected with coloured wax (blue for the veins, red for the arteries). The second director of the veterinary school, Philibert Chabert, was at first credited with, and later condemned for, having extended the collection substantially to include studies of foreign, aquatic, and avian specimens. Many of these specimens were extracted during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

and redistributed to

National Museum of Natural History (France) The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

and the École de Santé.

References

Musée Fragonard d'Alfort

Val de Marne article

Travel Signposts article

Taras Gresco, "Skeleton in the Cupboard", ''The Independent'', August 25, 1996

* Kristan Lawson, Anneli Rufus, ''Weird Europe: A Guide to Bizarre, Macabre, and Just Plain Weird Sights'', Macmillan, 1999, pages 67–68. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Fragonard dalfort, Musee Museums in Val-de-Marne Medical museums in France 1766 establishments in France History of science museums

See also

References