Caesar, Friesian, Tenectomy of the Long Digital Extensor Tendon, 2014

Written by Nina Rivera
Copyedited by Taina Millsap
Photo Edited by Yanting Chen

The Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College presents Andrea Modica’s Theatrum Equorum, which showcases images of Modica’s experiences at a Northern Italian equine clinic and at several equine breeding facilities in the United States.

Taken on her staple 8 x 10 large-format camera, Modica catalogs the work of veterinary surgeons for horses day in and day out. While most depictions of horses are that of majestic creatures, these studies bring a deep quietness and preternatural quality unfamiliar among equine characteristics. These usually imposing animals are captured post-operation in a state of powerlessness. According to the Berman Museum, procedures ranging from fracture repair, dental work, emergency colic intervention, and castrations are performed in the operating theater.

The idea of performance is immediately prevalent in Modica’s photographs. In images like Debridement of a Retropharyngeal Abscess, and, Serra Emasculator with Ratchet, viewers are witness to utilized surgical instruments both sterilized and organized or bloodied and unruly. Their presence in front of cloth backgrounds and under overhead lights mimics the space of a theater stage. The tools are unnerving and especially frightening when envisioned in movement, but Modica’s series emphasizes how the surgical theater exists as a different kind of dramatic scape. The spectacle of equine medicine becomes hauntingly beautiful and strange through the lens of photography.

Quoted by the Berman Museum, Modica states, “I began photographing with my 8X10 inch view camera at a horse hospital in the small town of Budrio di Bagnarola in northern Italy. The facility is owned by the prominent veterinary surgeon and artist Fabio Torre and it attracts remarkable and, generally, very valuable horses for a range of procedures. I was immediately drawn to the contrast of these magnificent animals rendered so vulnerable. Initially, I focused on the horses in their post-operative recovery rooms: simple padded stalls with overhead windows, which produce lovely, filtered light. The floors are covered with the doctor’s recycled shredded junk mail, medical journals, and art magazines. The stalls are at once theatrical stages and humble boxes. In these photographs, the horses are in a state of post-operative anesthetic sleep.”

This tender vulnerability is not usually synonymous with the realm of the medical field. However, Theatrum Equorum’s images are imbued with a gentility not only from their careful light sources but also from their emotional integrity. While seeing the unconscious forms of these lively animals can be suddenly uneasy, the knowledge of their rest and healing feels strongly spiritual. Lying peacefully atop a mountain of shredded paper, these horses bring to mind religious imagery that further highlights their unearthly presence. This divinity is most apparent in a photo like CAESAR, Friesian, and Long Digital Extensor Tenectomy, where our assumed Caesar stands in stunning posture behind a medical curtain, casting celestial light over and around his body.

Picture Perfect, Show Jumper, Excision of a Chronic Wound, 2018

The mark of a heavenly visage is lastly captured in Jana, Modica’s final photograph in her series. The only human in the entire work, the veterinarian stands wearing her surgery scrubs, mask, hat, and protective apron and gloves. The blood staining her gown is more than gruesome, and yet Jana reflects that of a saintly statue. This final image epitomizes the intensive effort and care that goes into working in such a field and connects both the human and horse or the surgeon and patient. It’s the work of an artist like Andrea Modica that brings such a niche culture to light and the unique eye of a photographer that allows delicacy to shine through the mysterious and clinical world of equine drama.

Theatrum Equorum is currently on exhibit from June 15th through December 11th, 2022 at the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art on the Ursinus College campus in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. The images in this exhibition are featured in Andrea Modica’s new book, Theatrum Equorum.