Eleanor Crook is a contemporary British artist and internationally renowned expert on anatomy. She holds a post at Guy's Hospital and has produced work for many museums. She began her fabrication career at Central St Martin's, concentrating on anatomically accurate wax models. In recent years she has incorporated animatronics and wood carving into her oevre, and is an authority on a number of surgical and anotomical fields, particularly the history of anatomy.
Martin was Dismissive of Popular Psychology
Wax model
Wax model
Bubonic Plague
Wax model
Harry
Wax model
Wax model
Artist's website: http://www.eleanorcrook.com/
Leonardo da Vinci
1452-1519
There is currently an exhibition of da Vinci's anatomical studies at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-anatomist
Da Vinci is reverenced partly because he is seen as a scientific visionary, taking an interest in many technological and medical phenomena. Yet the fact that he first learned anatomy during his apprenticeship (to an influential artist called Andrea del Verrocchio), later building on this background through first-hand dissection of human bodies at a number of different hospitals in Italy, indicates that although he was a major player in the history of anatomy, he was not necessarily as isolated a figure as can be assumed in the current popular imagination.
The blurb from The Queen's Gallery is as follows:
He intended to publish his ground-breaking work in a treatise on anatomy, and had he done so his discoveries would have transformed European knowledge of the subject. But on Leonardo’s death in 1519 the drawings remained a mass of undigested material among his private papers and their significance was effectively lost to the world for almost 400 years.
The skull sectioned, 1489
Anatomy of the neck, 1515
The cardiovascular system and principle organs of a woman, c.1509-10
Gunther von Hagens
Born 1945
Gunther von Hagens is German anatomist who developed a technique by which he could replace the water in soft tissue with plastic. His technical expertise is great, but he has been widely criticised on ethical grounds. There have been questions asked about the origins of the human bodies he has preserved, with accusations that he has used bodies without consent, possibly illegally acquired. Even if this is not the case, there are ethical questions surrounding the exchange of money for human bodies.
There are many other grounds on which von Hagens has been criticised, and religious groups in particular have objected to the display of human remains. Von Hagens usually organises the plastinated specimens into everyday poses, and often chooses frivolous, potentially offensive, modes of display.
Von Hagens is widely recognised as a highly capable scientist, and his Body Worlds exhibition has been globally successful. He currently has an exhibition at the Natural History Museum of plastinated animal bodies which runs until 16th September 2012. The details of the exhibition are advertised on the Natural History Museum website:
Images from the Body Worlds touring exhibition
Return to blog index: http://bodiesprojectindex.blogspot.co.uk
