Picturing the body : five centuries of medical images an exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine / Ken Arnold.

  • Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.
Date:
1993
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Picturing the body : five centuries of medical images an exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine / Ken Arnold. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE RENAISSANCE NATURALISTIC ANATOMICAL ILLUSTRATIONS In the Middle Ages knowledge of the body had been largely based on the descriptions of bones, vessels and organs produced by the Greek physician Galen. This book learning was sometimes supplemented by dissections of animals, usually pigs. Anatomical illustrations were not primarily used for accurate descriptions of the body, but rather as memory devices to help stu- dents recall the relationship of body parts to astrological signs, which were thought symbolically significant. With the Renaissance came a growing conviction that knowledge of the body could best be derived from anatomical dissections of human cadavers. To this end, universities provided permanent anatomy theatres for regular lecture demonstrations. Securing bodies for the dissections, however, remained very difficult. The most influential work in the effort to represent this new knowledge came from Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564). Even more significant than its anatomical insights, his work triumphantly incorporated the revolutionary development of naturalistic techniques of artistic representation. With print- ing, this style of representation gained ever wider audiences, and has remained central to Western medicine ever since. Drawing in 15th-century Calendarium. The carefully executed drawing of a 'Vein Man' has been done on a vellum sheet and folded to fit into a cover which is dated 1463. The work also contains the figure of an 'Astrological Man' and dates of eclipses. A vellum tag at the top of the cover would have allowed it to be suspended by a cord from a girdle. Western MS. 40. Drawing in Heyntandus de Veteri Busco, Ars computistica. 1488. The figure is of an 'Astrological Man' in which the body is surrounded by zodiacal signs which are related to their appropriate parts by a cord. The author is presumed to have been a priest from Oudenbosch in Holland. Western MS. 349. Drawing in Arzneibuch, Book of medical receipts, etc. [c.1524-1550]. The figures show the veins of the head and arm. They appear in a German physician's handbook of practical medicine, with notes on medical astrology, blood-letting, uroscopy, salves and unguents. Western MS. 93.