Gaetano Giulio Zumbo

His primary talents were not those generally considered as artistic but devoted to the creation of scientific models that were highly regarded as curiosity pieces in his time.

He was born in Siracusa, Sicily, and showed an entirely self-taught inclination to the sculptural arts and anatomy.

He formed a partnership with a French surgeon, Guillaume Desnoues, and with him completed a number of anatomical studies, including a woman who died while in childbirth.

With Denoues, he travelled to Paris, and at the Academy of Sciences presented a wax sculpture of the head with naturalistic depiction of veins, arteries, nerves, glands, and muscles.

[1] Similar work by Giuseppe Salerno is in the Sansevero Chapel in Naples, Italy.