Overcoming Death: Conserving the Body in Nineteenth-Century Belgium

Anatomists in nineteenth-century Belgium developed several conservation techniques for the preservation of the corpse. Embalmed bodies and anatomical preparations were often conserved and perceived as if they were still alive and appeared to be sleeping. The slumbering corpses echoed a shift in nineteenth-century funeral culture and represented a beautiful death. By preserving the corpse as sleeping, anatomists aligned themselves with Catholic funerary rites. The sleeping corpse visualised a peaceful afterlife for the deceased person and hinted at the immortality of the soul. At the same time, preserving the corpse answered medical fears about rotting dead bodies and placed anatomy in a more favourable light. Anatomists made use of the “death as sleep” metaphor that originated in funeral culture and repositioned the corpse in a transitional zone between life and death, thus aligning the anatomical cabinet to the deathbed spectacle.