Natural History Museum CollectionsAnthropology and EthnologyPlaster Casts Collection

Plaster Casts Collection

 

The Museum preserves one of the most unique collections of the Italian museum panorama, in dialogue with contemporary art: we are talking about 600 facial masks in white painted plaster, taken on living beings.

Evidence of anthropological research between the 19th and 20th centuries - when the study of human variability was based essentially on morphological and morphometric data, the first nucleus was purchased by the German ethnologist Otto Finsch in 1885.

Not only facial masks, however, but also casts of skulls, hands, feet, finds that open the doors to curiosity; in addition, the plaster casts of 23 members of the Medici family of Florence are on display in the gallery.

Learn more on the plaster casts collection (English text at the bottom of the pages)
Moggi, J., The Anthropological Collections (extract), in: Moggi, J., Stanyon, R. (eds), 2014. " The Museum of Natural History of the University of Florence. Vol. 5, The Anthropological and Ethnological Collections", Firenze University Press (pp. 192-193)