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Introduction
| Early days | Renaissance | Modern
art
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'Vitruvian Man' by Leonardo
da Vinci |
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Da Vinci's 'Virtuvian Man' (showing the human body as it relates to
a circle) is perhaps one of the most famous anatomical drawings in history.
What is less well known, however, is that da Vinci's examination of the
human form was hands-on. By his own count, da Vinci dissected more than
30 corpses over the course of his lifetime, working first in Milan, then
at hospitals in Florence and Rome.
Da Vinci's work was hugely influential, not in terms of any medical or anatomical discovery, but in laying the foundations of modern scientific illustration. He was the first anatomist-artist to draw accurately the bones of the hand and the facial muscles.
But his work was not flawless. Da Vinci saw anatomy in an emotional rather than a purely scientific way: this led him to project theories about how he felt the body should work onto his drawings. One example, which shows a couple having sex, bisected from head to toe, portrays semen as coming from the brain, along the spinal cord, and reaching the penis through a tube for which he would have had no physical evidence.
Michelangelo (1475-1564)
Michelangelo is also thought to have practised anatomical dissections
to perfect his understanding of the human form. According to Georgio Vasari,
a contemporary of Michelangelo's, the artist 'very often used to flay
dead bodies in order to discover the secrets of anatomy'. Michelangelo's
investigation of anatomy was used purely for artistic purposes. Paintings
such as 'The Creation of Adam' and sculptures such as 'David', which graces
the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, reflect his superior knowledge
of the human body.
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)
While da Vinci's work had a major impact on scientific illustration,
it was a Flemish physician, Andreas Vesalius, who became the first anatomist
to mount a serious challenge to Galen's findings. His progress was made
possible by the fact that the Catholic Church started to allow hanged
murderers to be dissected. Vesalius performed detailed dissections, stripping
away layer after layer of tissue to record the structure of the human
body. He teamed up with students from the studio of Titian, a renowned
Renaissance artist, to record his dissections, producing a remarkable
volume known as the Fabrica, the first comprehensive textbook of
anatomy.
The drawings within the book show that, like Galen, Vesalius opened up the body not just for edification, but for entertainment: his illustrations include a weary skeleton leaning on a spade, and another sitting on a ledge looking melancholy. Drawings depict him surrounded by eager crowds as he cuts open a human corpse. Vesalius was able to procure the bodies of criminals who had been executed, with the help of the arch confraternities – religious orders that ministered to criminals and the poor. In specially built anatomy theatres (the precursors of today's operating theatres), Vesalius played to packed crowds. Like Galen, he had favourite dramatic routines: his was to plunge his hand into the body, pull out the heart and display it to onlookers.
Image: AKG Photo