The Ingenious Machine of Nature: Four Centuries of Art and Anatomy - Softcover

Cazort, Mimi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0888846576 ISBN 13: 9780888846570

Publisher: National Gallery of Canada, 1997

Synopsis

Renaissance art and the descriptive science of human anatomy were born at exactly the same
moment in Italy around 1500. Anatomists needed artists to illustrate their books, and artists
needed anatomists to help them understand the body's structure, movement, and function. The
illustrations which they devised together mark the longest unbroken collaboration between
scientists and artists in western culture. These "maps of the body" established the basis for the
figurative tradition in painting and sculpture which lasts to this day. The exhibition catalogue
reproduces anatomical drawings, prints, and illustrated books, and includes examples by
major artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Durer, and Rubens but also
the eloquent illustrations by lesser known artists. The text, written for the interested layman as
well as the specialist, explores popular anatomical broadsheets, the teaching of anatomy to
young artists, female anatomy as revealing the origins of life, the anatomical dissection theatres, and "anatomy satirized."

About this title

Review:

Cazort and others consider four centuries of art and anatomy in a title which traces the birth of renaissance art and the field of anatomical study around 1500. Enjoy an exhibition catalog of anatomical drawings, prints and illustrations including examples by major and lesser-known artists alike, complimented by a text which covers the teaching of anatomy and its representation. -- Midwest Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: National Gallery of Canada
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0888846576
• ISBN 13: 9780888846570
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240