Posts tagged Anatomy

Introduction    

    Anatomical art has been around since the late 1400’s, to be an artist, for many, was to be an anatomist. Both artists and anatomists worked together to investigate not only the surface of the body, but the muscles and bones which lay beneath the skin, therefore producing images combining medical knowledge and the artists perception. This gave me the perfect idea of looking at the different versions of how anatomy is perceived and therefore Leonardo Da Vinci becomes my starting point. Da Vinci’s anatomical study was fundamental to his art; his sketchbook drawings from the exploration of 30 dissected corpses fascinate me. Da Vinci’s drawings show his many discoveries including the biceps responsibility for both bending the elbow and turning the palm of the hand upwards, an unborn baby in the womb correctly attached by the umbilical cord (containing one obvious mistake that the placenta is more appropriate for a cow than a woman) and correct drawings of a single-chambered uterus rather than the false belief at the time that the uterus comprised of several different compartments. In Leonardo’s sketchbook is also the famous drawing of the Vitruvian Man which demonstrates the proportions of the human figure showing how they fit perfectly into a circle or square.  Vitruvian Man is the piece I shall do my critical analysis on.  
      Gunther Von Hagen is another person I will reference in my project. Although he is an anatomist and not an artist, his works are seen in my eyes as pieces of art work. Gunther Von Hagen is the founder of a technique known as Plastination which is the preservation of body parts by replacing the water ad fat components by certain plastics and thereby yielding them so they can be touched and not smell or decay.  What amazes me about his work is the concept I feel is behind them. The idea of preserving a body in such a way that it is frozen in time between death and decay is absolutely beautiful. Bringing the inside out shows the body, to me, in a bizarrely alluring new light, this is one of my main reasons for referencing his work to my own work.
     One more artist I stumbled across in my research was Fernando Vicente whose work appeals to me more due to the symbolic and philosophical take on anatomy. His ‘Vanitas’ collection of beautiful woman with parts of their anatomy showing at varies points are absolutely astounding. It’s showing ‘behind the beauty’ in his works or that beauty lies inside as well as out, something we all have. This links in with how I see Gunther Von Hagen’s work. Vicente’s work is a much more modern and contrasting take on anatomy to those of Da Vinci and Gunther Von Hagen, however all the same concept.