As noted by Ludmilla Jordanova and Deanna Petherbridge in The Quick and the Dead: Artists and Anatomy, artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci made enormous contributions to the emerging sciences of the body. The study of anatomy was, in fact, obligatory for many schools of art--and artists like Allessandro Allori composed anatomy textbooks for physicians.The close approximation of art and anatomy meant that the artists needed both “perceptual drawing skills” and “a strong stomach,” but just as the artist might be sometimes an anatomist, the anatomist or physician might sometimes be an artist. In this post, we will...
