Painting death, the post mortem portrait of Miguel Antonio Vilardebó.
(Buenos Aires, 1844). A medical-legal and thanatological study.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35954/SM2021.40.1.8Keywords:
Postmortem Changes; Medicine History; Forensic Medicine; Miguel Antonio Vilardebó; ThanatologyAbstract
Exceptional is the opportunity we have had to study for the first time an oil portrait painted after death, 176 years after it was captured on canvas and with the unique characteristics of the sitter. The portrait shows bandages and dressings on his face, which led us to suspect a priori an unknown and undocumented underlying disease or injury.
The study we have made, with the perspective of a medical examiner, resorted to interpret the portrait to the contributions of the theory of thanatology, which deals with everything that surrounds death and is common in the practice of this specialty. We have confronted our conclusions with the known documentation and bibliography on the character.
The result has been surprising.
Received for review: October 2020.
Accepted for publication: January 2021.
Correspondence: 21 de setiembre 2713. Apt. 401. C.P. 11300. Montevideo, Uruguay. Tel.: (+598) 27101418.
Contact e-mail: asoiza@adinet.com.uy
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(1) Museo Histórico Nacional. Catálogo descriptivo. I: Historia general de la República. Montevideo, Imprenta Nacional, 1946. Cuadros: 13 – Miguel Antonio Vilardebó, p. 123.
(2) Angel Ayestarán Fernández comunicación personal.
(3) Goldaracena R. El libro de los linajes: familias históricas uruguayas del siglo XIX. Montevideo : Arca, 2002. Tomo 5, p. 243-244.
(4) Soler Vilardebó J. Don Miguel A. Vilardebó y su época (1773-1844). Montevideo : Imprenta Rosgal, 1936. 124 p. Prólogo de Mario Falcao Espalter.
(5) Mañé Garzón F. Teodoro M. Vilardebó 1803-1857. Primer médico uruguayo. Montevideo : Academia Nacional de Medicina del Uruguay, 1989. 360 p.
(6) Favier HA. Albin Auguste [sic] Favier. El enciclopédico del retratismo y la botánica. Publicado, domingo 7 de junio de 2015 [Citado 2020 oct 15]. En: Mis gringos franceses en el rio paycarabi del delta de San Fernando, los Favier. Una memoria reconstruida entre relatos e historia rioplatence a través de cinco generaciones. [Blog, 1 pantalla]. Disponible en: http://losfavierdeldelta.blogspot.com/2015/06/albin-auguste-favier-el-enciclopedico.html.
(7) Museo Roca. Historia visual: Arte en la Argentina, Nº 28. Pintores franceses, Nº 1, pág. 53. Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. RA. Se reproduce el retrato post mortem de Miguel Antonio Vilardebó con el Nº 83. Disponible en: https://elbaile.com.ar/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/437-Pintores-Franceses-I_5.pdf. [Consulta 15/10/2020]
(8) Medan D. La trayectoria de un pionero de la fotografía en la Argentina: Albin Favier (1809-1872). Memoria del 10º Congreso de Historia de la Fotografía “Dr. Julio Felipe Riobó”, Chascomús, Argentina, 4-5/09/2009. Sociedad Iberoamericana de Historia de la Fotografía, 2014, p. 204-214.
(9) De María I. Hombres notables de la República Oriental del Uruguay. Montevideo : Claudio García, 1939. 4 vols. La edición con una biografía del autor y notas bibliográficas de Juan E. Pivel Devoto, en su tomo IV, págs. 55-60 contiene la correspondiente a Miguel Antonio Vilardebó.
(10) Schiaffino R. Vida y obra de Teodoro M. Vilardebó (1803-1857). Montevideo : El Siglo Ilustrado, 1940. 236 págs. Apart. de Rev. Inst. His. Geogr. Uruguay, XV, 1939.
(11) Guerra D. Entre el álbum-cementerio y la morgue de papel. La imagen póstuma y la masificación del retrato fotográfico en la Argentina. En: VI Congreso Internacional de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades “Imágenes de la muerte”. Salta, UNSa-UNIRIO, 13-16 de agosto de 2014.
(12) Varese JA. Historia de la fotografía en el Uruguay. Montevideo, Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 2007. p. 11 y ss.
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