La Specola is a historical museum in that parts of the collection can be traced back to the Medici Family. Most of the taxidermic animals were collected through many generations of the family’s hunting expeditions and explorations of the world. “Specola” means observatory, a reference to the astronomical observatory founded there in 1790, so the museum includes an astronomical tower, sundial room and a room dedicated to Galileo. The museum is also known for its collection of wax anatomical models, very famous for its accuracy and realism because it was copied from real corpses. It was the first museum for doctors to study the anatomy without actually performing surgery and dissections.
The rooms of taxidermy were organized according to animal families such as mollusks, insects, crabs and starfish to herbivores, carnivores, primates, oviparous animals to birds, small and big. The stuffed hippopotamus featured was a 17th-century Medici family pet that once lived in the Boboli Gardens. Due to the collection’s antiquity, sometimes, details aren’t accurate. Since taxidermy consisted of no skeletons, for example, the structure of the hippo's feet was not clearly understood, so it was presented wrongly bent. Also some animal's eyes were represented bulging with brighter color that might not be realistic. Despite some inconsistencies, the collection is still remarkable, to this day, for its detail and quantity.
Connected to the rooms of taxidermy, is wax models of anatomy done by Gaetano Giulio Zumbo and Clemente Susini which features full body wax models posed as Botticelli's Venus--to make it less gruesome, models with real-life faces and real hair for models of the head and models of fetal reproduction, which shows the different stages of the baby growing in the mother’s belly.The amount of detail that the artist’s put into displaying the human body just goes to to show their dedication to the art of science.
Another collection that interested me was the Skeletons Hall on the ground floor that features 3000 specimens kept here include skulls, bones and complete skeletons of vertebrates. They are all bones of modern animals, not fossils, though the collection also had bones of some extinct animals. Some bones were missing: some of the elephants feet bones were replaced with wooden ones because they were missing, but just seeing the mass and structure of the animal was breathtaking. We got to study the way the elephant’s teeth grows in by looking at the skull.
Another collection that interested me was the Skeletons Hall on the ground floor that features 3000 specimens kept here include skulls, bones and complete skeletons of vertebrates. They are all bones of modern animals, not fossils, though the collection also had bones of some extinct animals. Some bones were missing: some of the elephants feet bones were replaced with wooden ones because they were missing, but just seeing the mass and structure of the animal was breathtaking. We got to study the way the elephant’s teeth grows in by looking at the skull.
For my project, I wanted to create a sense of mystery for different parts of different animals. My theme is wings, tails and horns, so I illustrated different parts of animals with those body parts. I decided to display each animal on different colored paper, in two to four parts. I tried not to show the whole animal, so that the viewer is left to wonder what some of the animals are, especially for the “tails” section--two animals I still cannot identify since the names of the animals were written in Italian. I got all of my
animal references from La Specola, from the pictures I took on my phone and sketches I did in my sketchbook. I installed my drawings in a disheveled fashion, as to make the parts less recognizable. With the use of pins, I try to imply that the piece is like a study, with each of the parts movable to create a new “creature”. I realize that there are many ways to display my drawings that I haven’t explored yet. I should have jumbled them up even more, to make it even more challenging for the viewer to comprehend what they are seeing.
The exploration of different textures and drawing styles were a key in my work as well. I wanted to juxtapose different textures in different horns, different insect wings, and different tails. Different inking styles is something that interested me since I’ve always been impressed by the level of complexity that could be achieved with pen and ink. Switching from style to style, detailed to simplistic, realistic to graphic, is something that I like to do in my own drawings. Exploring different ways of drawing with pen is exhilarating to me because of its permanence and the level of detail that can be achieved with patience and a firm hand. Drawing subjects that I have never thought of drawing also opened my eyes to what I can do as an artist. 
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