Most people think that art and science are poles apart. Rohin Francis shows that this is not so
Long before da Vinci or even Galen, from the very dawn of our existence, we have been fascinated by the human form. The worlds of art and science are so often portrayed as being poles apart, but in one area in particular the two merge indistinguishably. A fundamental aspect of the human race is to try to understand how we function. The history of anatomical study is a remarkable evolution in our understanding of how the body works and a field where scientific pursuit and artistic drives have always been intertwined. It has, however, been a select few who have shaped the way we regard anatomy and who have taught us what we know.
Understanding how body parts work together
One can trace this back to the very birth of art. The Venus of Willendorf, found in Austria, is generally accepted as the first example of prehistoric art. It has been dated to about 30 000 bc and is the depiction of a young woman. The Hall of Bulls found in the caves at Lascaux, France, and the Bison from Altamira in Spain, are detailed studies of animal anatomy. Ancient cultures had started the tradition of paying homage to nature, by trying to re-create nature's works of art. Anatomy has never simply been about naming parts of the body but an attempt to understand how they work together and individually. The obsession with the human body is apparent from artefacts found worldwide over the ensuing centuries, but the next period of major anatomical study was to take place in ancient India.
Susruta lived around 400 bc and is known as the "father of surgery" in India. He produced many illustrations of the body and its internal features, the digestive and cardiovascular systems in particular. Susruta's colourful illustrations are meticulously compiled and they show a major step in anatomical study--the dissection of corpses. Susruta was driven by a desire to become a better surgeon by means of a thorough anatomical expertise, a premise as true 24 centuries later. His pursuit of anatomy produced pictures never seen before--the inner workings of a human being. But the most famous example of Indian artwork around Susruta's time, a bronze statue of a dancer from Mohenjo Dara, echoes the trait first shown in the Venus of Willendorf, the idealisation of the human form. This trait remained an obstacle in the accurate portrayal of the body throughout history.
Uniting science and art
Several hundred years later, the Greek medicine man Galen, who worked at the Roman emperor's court (ad 129-c 210) was to shape the Western world's view of the human anatomy for the next millennium. Galen's work was the basis on which the Renaissance artists built, and it was these artists who were truly to unite science and art. Before the Renaissance, artists had not realised that careful observation was crucial for faithful reproduction of their subject matter. Massacio (1401-28) was one of the earliest artists to master depicting three dimensional human bodies on two dimensional media.
Antonio Pollaiuolo (1431-98) may well have been the first artist to turn to dissection to further his understanding of anatomy for the sake of his artwork. Luca Signorelli (1450-1523) was an artist who produced a vast series of friezes at the turn of the 16th century and was very keen to demonstrate his prowess in capturing the human body in many different positions. This may have given rise to Michelangelo's near perfection in the form of Adam in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Both Michelangelo (1475-1564) and Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) are known to have used human dissection as a tool to hone their anatomical understanding.
Leonardo da Vinci was undoubtedly incredibly gifted in both the fields of art and science. He was renowned for his intense curiosity about nature, and the first evidence of his interest in anatomy is shown in his painting of Saint Jerome, dating from
da Vinci's youth, showing a detailed study of neck and shoulder muscles. Unlike many of his Renaissance contemporaries who merely concentrated on the surface, many animal and human dissections show da Vinci investigated internal anatomy as well.
After nearly a decade studying mechanics, da Vinci returned to the study of the body in about 1510. The effect of the interim period was clear as da Vinci sought to understand the body's joints as complex interactions of levers. This period gave us his greatest anatomical sketches. It produced beautifully detailed studies of the body, inside and out, and the invention of exploded views with which we are so
familiar now. Da Vinci was convinced every anatomical feature had a purpose, and it was only his incredible ability to observe and reproduce the body that allowed him to catalogue so many features. Da Vinci depicted the heart as a seed giving rise to countless branches, the same way a tree does. Da Vinci's imagination facilitated the creation of his dramatic cutaway views of babies in utero, and these must have been truly revolutionary in his day.
Soon after, Andreas Vesalius (1514-64) was to unite the worlds of art and anatomy once again, spectacularly. The illustrations accompanying his De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543) have become legendary, not only because of their anatomical accuracy and hitherto unknown detail, but also the living poses the dead bodies assume make the engravings mesmerising pictures.
Large scale dissemination becomes possible
Two hundred years would pass before the publication of the Tubulae Sceleti et Musculorum Corporis Humani (1747). Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697-1770) and Jan Wandelaar ( 1690-1759) produced this seminal work and the advanced printing press of the 18th century allowed dissemination on a previously impossible scale. Albinus devised an ingenious method to allow Wandelaar to illustrate the specimens to a extraordinarily high level of accuracy. Wandelaar was a gifted artist and it was perhaps his initiative that caused the plates to become so popular. Wandelaar devised the ornate backgrounds, leaving almost no part of the plate empty and thus created a dramatically real effect. He provided verdant plants, stone ruins, and famously a rhinoceros, as backdrops to the upright corpses, reminiscent of Vesalius.
Pieces such as the Anatomical Crucifixion (1801) by Thomas Banks (1735-1805) began life as scientific pursuits and were hailed as works of art. The study of anatomy even became the subject of artwork as seen in Rembrandt's Anatomical Lecture (1632). Today, the human form plays as big a part as ever in the world of art. Artists continue to follow the sublime contours of the body and controversy remains anatomy's bedfellow. Marc Quinn (b1964) produced a cast of his head made from four litres of his own blood and more recently a cast of his newborn son made from his liquefied placenta. Works such as this and Professor Gunther von Hagen's highly publicised Bodyworlds exhibition will always arouse curiosity, disgust, and admiration among the public, and this is why the art of anatomy and the sheer awe the body provokes have fascinated us for thousands of years and will continue to do so for many more.
