Medical anatomical illustration - the history of the study of the human body in the atlases of 5 centuries. Part 2

So, a new part of the history of anatomical atlases. In a previous post, Andreas Vesalius made an anatomical revolution, not only creating amazing aids, but also bringing up talented students who continued breakthrough research. In this post we will get to the anatomical illustrations of the Baroque era and the stunning atlas of the Dutch anatomist Howard Bidloo, as well as show illustrations from the first Russian anatomical atlas that we got due to the courtesy of the staff of the New York Medical Library.

XVII century: from the circles of blood circulation to the doctors of Peter the Great

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The University of Padua in the 17th century preserved its continuity, remaining something of a modern MIT , but for the anatomists of the early Modern Age.
The history of anatomy and anatomical illustration of the 17th century begins with Hieronymus Fabricius. He was a student of Fallopia, and after graduating from university he also became a researcher and teacher. Among his achievements is the description of the fine structure of the organs of the digestive tract, larynx and brain. He first proposed a prototype of the division of the cerebral cortex into lobes, highlighting the central sulcus. Also, this scientist opened the valves in the veins, preventing backflow of blood. In addition, Fabricius was a good popularizer - he first began the practice of anatomical theaters.
Fabricius worked a lot with animals, which gave him the opportunity to contribute to zoology (he described the factory bag, a key organ of the immune system of birds) and embryology (he described the developmental stages of bird eggs and gave the name to the ovaries - ovarium).
Fabricius, like many anatomists, worked on the atlas. However, his approach was really solid. First, he included in the atlas illustrations not only of human anatomy, but also of animals. In addition, Fabricius decided that the work should be performed in color and 1: 1 scale. The atlas created under his leadership included about 300 illustrated tables, but after the scientist’s death, they were temporarily lost, and re-discovered only in 1909 in the State Library of Venice. By that time, 169 tables remained intact.



Illustrations from the tables of Fabricius. The works correspond to the pictorial level that the painters of that time could demonstrate.

Fabricius, like his predecessors, was able to continue and develop the Italian anatomical school. Among his students and colleagues was Giulio Cesare Casseri . This scientist and professor of the same University of Padua was born in 1552, and died in 1616. The last years of his life he devoted to work on the atlas, which was called exactly the same as many other atlases of the time, “Tabulae Anatomicae”. He was assisted by artist Odoardo Fialetti and engraver Francesco Valesio. However, the work itself was published after the death of the anatomist, in 1627.



Illustrations from the tables of Casserio ( source ).

Fabricius and Kasseri entered the history of anatomical knowledge by the fact that both were teachers of William Harvey ( William Harvey - we have his surname better known in the transcription of Harvey ), who moved the study of the structure of the human body to a higher level. Harvey was born in England in 1578, but after studying at Cambridge went to Padua. He was not a medical illustrator, but he drew attention to the fact that every organ of the human body is important, first of all, not by what it looks like or where it is located, but by what function it performs. Thanks to his functional approach to anatomy, Harvey was able to describe the circles of blood circulation. Before him, it was believed that blood was formed in the heart and with each rotation of the heart muscle is delivered to all organs. It never occurred to anyone that if it were really so, about 250 liters of blood would have to be formed in the body every hour.

A prominent anatomical illustrator of the first half of the seventeenth century was Pietro da Cortona ( Pietro da Cortona , also known as Pietro Berrettini).
Yes Cortona was not an anatomist. Moreover, he is known as one of the key artists and architects of the Baroque era. And I must say that his anatomical illustrations were not as impressive as the paintings:







Anatomical illustrations of Barrettini.



The fresco “The Triumph of Divine Providence”, on which Barrettini worked from 1633 to 1639 ( source ).

Anatomical illustrations of Barrettini were made supposedly in 1618, in the early period of the master's work, on the basis of the autopsies conducted at the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Rome. As in a number of other cases, engravings were made on them that were not printed until 1741. In the works of Barrettini interesting compositional solutions and the image of the prepared bodies in live poses against the background of buildings and landscapes.

By the way, at that time artists turned to the topic of anatomy not only to depict the internal organs of a person, but also to demonstrate the process of opening and working of anatomical theaters. It is worth mentioning the famous Rembrandt painting “Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp”:



The painting “Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulpa”, written in 1632.

However, this story was popular:



Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Willem van der Meer An earlier picture showing the educational autopsy - “The lesson of the anatomy of Dr. William van der Meer”, written by Michael van Mirevelt in 1617.

The second half of the 17th century in the history of medical illustration is notable for the work of Howard Bidloo. He was born in Amsterdam in 1649 and studied as a doctor and anatomist at the University of Franeker in the Netherlands, after which he went to teach anatomy techniques to The Hague. Bidloo's book “The Anatomy of the Human Body in 105 Tables Painted from Life ” became one of the most famous anatomical atlases of the XVII-XVIII centuries and was distinguished by the detail and accuracy of illustrations. It was published in 1685, and was later translated into Russian by order of Peter I, who decided to develop medical education in Russia. Petra's nephew Nikolaas ( Nikolai Lambertovich ), who in 1707 founded the first Russian hospital medical-surgical school and hospital in Lefortovo, the current Main Military Clinical Hospital named after NN Burdenko, became the personal doctor of Peter.





According to the illustrations from the Bidloo satin, there is a tendency to more accurate, than before, the drawing of details and the greater educational value of the material. The artistic component fades into the background, although it is still noticeable. Taken from here and from here .

XVIII century: exhibits of the Kunstkamera, wax anatomical models and the first Russian atlas

One of the most talented and skillful anatomists in Italy at the beginning of the 18th century was Giovanni Dominic Santorini ( Giovanni Domenico Santorini ), who, unfortunately, did not live very long and became the author of only one fundamental work called “ Anatomical observations ”. It is rather an anatomical textbook than an atlas - illustrations are only in the appendix, but they deserve a mention.



Illustrations from the book of Santorini. Source of

Frederik Ruysch , who invented a successful embalming technique, lived and worked in the Netherlands at the time. The Russian reader will be interested in the fact that it was his preparations that formed the basis of the Kunstkamera collection. Ruysch was acquainted with Peter. The king, being in the Netherlands, often attended his anatomical lectures and watched him conduct an autopsy.
Ruysch made preparations and sketches, including children's skeletons and organs. Like earlier authors from Italy, in his works there was not only a didactic, but also an artistic component. Somewhat strange, however.



Illustrations of Ruysch. Source of

Another prominent anatomist and physiologist of the time, Albrecht von Haller ( Albrecht von Haller ), lived and worked in Switzerland. He is famous for introducing the concept of irritability - the ability of the muscles (and subsequently the glands) to respond to the excitation of nerves. He wrote several books on anatomy, to which detailed illustrations were made.



Illustrations of books background Galler. Source of

The second half of the 18th century in physiology was remembered by the works of John Hunter in Scotland. He made a great contribution to the development of surgery, a description of the anatomy of the teeth, the study of inflammatory processes and the processes of growth and healing of bones. The most famous work of Hunter was the book “ Observations on a part of the animal oeconomy ”



Illustrations from books Hunter. Source of The link can pomotret other illustrations from the annex to the book. The works of illustrators are increasingly reminiscent of modern textbooks.

In the XVIII century, the first anatomical atlas was created, one of the authors of which was the Russian doctor, anatomist and draftsman Martin Ilyich Shein . The atlas was called “Dictionary, or illustrated index of all parts of the human body” (Syllabus, seu indexem omnium partius corporis humani figuris illustratus). One of his copies is kept in the library of the New York Academy of Medicine . The library staff kindly agreed to send us scans of several pages of the atlas, first published in 1757. Probably, these illustrations are published for the first time on the Internet.







Illustrations by Shein's Atlas ( Courtesy of the New York Academy of Medicine Library ). It can be seen that this is quite a detailed guide, including the image of slices of individual organs, as well as the anatomy of the child’s body.

In addition to anatomical atlases, illustrated textbooks on surgery were published at that time:



Illustrations from the book “ The Elements of Surgery ”, 1746 ( source ).

Also in the XVIII century, the technology of creating anatomical educational models of wax became popular, although they were made at the end of the previous century - for the first time, the abbot from Bologna Zhetano Giulio Zumbo took up this task .



Photo work Zumbo ( source ).



Photo of the work of Clemento Susini ( source ).

More examples on the link .

In conclusion, we mention three more authors whose atlases are interesting to pay attention to. it
Leopoldo Marco Antonio Caldani , Paolo Mascagni and Antonio Scarpa Here, for example, is an illustration from the Mascagni Atlas (taken from here ):



In the next post we will get to the XIX and XX centuries. There are a lot of interesting things there, including Grey's anatomy, the atlas of Sinelnikov, Günther von Hagens, and the complete human model, made on the basis of photographs of a prisoner sentenced to the death penalty cut into thin layers.

Other posts in the series:
Part one
Part three
Conclusion