PARIS, France--The famous Auzoux Horse, one of the first veterinary
teaching aids of its kind, has been restored to its former glory thanks
to a €50,000 grant from Pfizer Animal Health.
The papier-mâché model dates back to 1846 and was initially created to
allow veterinary students to mimic a dissection without having to use an
actual cadaver, an unpleasant and dangerous choice in an era when it was
not uncommon for people to die of complications from a simple cut. It is
labelled and can be completely taken apart, offering a hyper-realistic,
precisely detailed overview of a horse’s anatomy, comparable to what one
might learn through dissection.
When the first prototype was created in 1844 by physician Louis Auzoux,
it was a revolutionary teaching aid for veterinary students.
The restored model is one of the main attractions of the Fragonard
Museum at the Alfort National Veterinary School [École nationale
vétérinaire d’Alfort (ENVA)], which has earned the prestigious ‘Musée de
France’ [Museum of France] quality label. It is one of the earliest of
its kind and was produced during the first attempts to market this
unusual object.
The first models sold were commissioned by the French Ministry of War,
for the cavalry schools and remount depots, at a time when horses played
a pivotal role in daily life, not only in the military but also in
agriculture and transport.
In addition to papier-mâché, the Auzoux Horse is also made of metal,
wood and vegetable fibres, all held together with isinglass. It weighs
65 kg, stands 1.58 m tall and is 1.67 cm long. Built on a 75% scale, it
has many movable and removable parts.
The restoration, which was funded entirely by Pfizer Animal Health, was
begun in mid-November 2011 by an internationally acclaimed
multidisciplinary team coordinated by Atelier Marchal-Poncelet. The work
took four months to complete and was carried out at the Fragonard
Museum’s workshops in Maisons-Alfort.
The work was performed in two stages: completion of the restoration of
the left side, filling in gaps and fixing discolourations, and
restoration of the right side and left forelimb.
The newly restored horse can now be seen and appreciated once more by
visitors the the Fragonard Museum at the Alfort National Veterinary
School.
A dozen model horses by Auzoux can be found in the scientific
collections of museums around the world (Lyon, Toulouse, Madrid, London,
Halle, New Delhi, etc.).
Restoration team:
The team assembled for the project consisted of six heritage
conservationists-restorers, brought together by Paris-based Atelier
Marchal-Poncelet.
Caroline Marchal and Jim Poncelet, co-owners of Atelier
Marchal-Poncelet, hold master’s degrees in the conservation and
restoration of cultural heritage from the University of Paris I
[Université Paris I] and specialise in documents and graphic works.
Elizabet Nijhoff Asser, a graphic-art, parchment and book
conservationist, manages the Mooie Boeken workshop in Amsterdam. She had
previously overseen the restoration work of papier-mâché anatomical
models by Dr Auzoux held by the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden, Netherlands.
E. Manu Giaccone, an independent graphic-art conservationist
based in the Netherlands, worked for nine years at Elizabet Nijhoff
Asser’s workshop. She has collaborated extensively on the restoration of
the Boerhaave Museum collection.
Ségolène Walle holds a master’s degree in the conservation and
restoration of cultural heritage from the University of Paris I. A
specialist in graphic documents and books, she completed an internship
at the Mooie Boeken workshop, where she participated in the restoration
of several Auzoux models. She joined the staff at Atelier
Marchal-Poncelet a few months ago.
Pauline Morlot graduated in June 2011 from the Avignon School of
Fine Art [École Supérieure d’Art d’Avignon] and specialises in the
restoration of objets d’art and scientific objects. She wrote her thesis
on papier-mâché anatomical models of gorillas.
About the Fragonard Museum
The Fragonard Museum at the Alfort National Veterinary School is one of
the oldest museums in France and heir to the ‘Cabinet du Roi’, the
original collection of artwork and curiosities founded in 1766 at the
world’s second-oldest veterinary school. The museum has withstood the
centuries, revolutions and wars, and today boasts an outstanding
collection devoted to animals displayed in a fascinating setting.
The museum holds over 4,200 objects related to animal anatomy and
pathology, including more than 400 exquisite plaster casts, making it
one of the largest collections in this field in France.
Its international renown is partially due to the famous écorché figures
by Honoré Fragonard, a cousin of the painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard and
the school’s first professor of anatomy. These are the museum’s
treasures, its oldest pieces, and they have been known to European
naturalists since the 18th century. Dismissed at the turn of the 20th
century as vestiges of a bygone science, they have been re-embraced
today as valuable pieces of cultural heritage and rare scientific
objects.
About Pfizer Animal Health
Pfizer Animal Health, a Pfizer Inc. company, is a world leader in the
discovery and development of innovative veterinary medicinal products
and vaccines and allocates nearly $300 million (£190 million) a year to
Research and Development. Pfizer Animal Health works hard to assure a
safe global food supply from healthy farm animals and to help companion
animals live longer, healthier lives.
To learn more about Pfizer Animal Health, visit http://www.pfizer-vet.fr/
and http://www.pfizer.fr/.
For further information, Contact:
Claire Lauvernier
Communications Manager
+33 (0)1 58 07 30 79
claire.lauvernier@pfizer.com