Resources

Italyʼs medieval universities established the study of human anatomy for medical professionals. To heighten their art, the Renaissance masters clandestinely studied anatomy through human dissection. Connecting Art and Anatomy is better understood through reading the academic underpinnings of Anatomia Italiana.

Below is a selected bibliography of downloadable journal articles and book chapters in PDF that provide context for Anatomia Italiana.

• Ballestriero, R. “Anatomical Wax Venuses: Art Masterpieces or Scientific Craft Works?” Journal of Anatomy, Vol. 216, No. 2, pp. 223-234, February 2010.

• Bell, T.O., et al. “Art, Anatomy, and Medicine: Is There a Place for Art in Medical Education?” Anatomical Sciences Education, 7:370-378 (2014).

• Brockbank, W. “Old Anatomical Theatres and What Took Place Therein” Medical History, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 371-384, October 1968.

• Cahill, T. “The Invention of Human Beauty” in Heretics and Heroes: How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Created our World. Doubleday, New York, 2013. pp. 83-127.

• Cappello, F. et al. “Giovanni Filippo Ingrassia: A Five-Hundred Year-Long Lesson” Clinical Anatomy, 23:743-749, 2010.

• Davis, M.C. et al. “The Naming of the Cranial Nerves: A Historical Review” Clinical Anatomy, 27:14-19, 2014.

• de Campos, D. “A Hidden Rib Found in Michelangelo Buonarroti’s Fresco The Creation of Adam” Clinical Anatomy, 32:648–653 (2019).

• DiMaio, S. et al. “Il Fasciculo di Medicina of 1493: Medical Culture through the Eyes of the Artist” Neurosurgery, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 187-196, January 2006.

• Eknoyan, G. “Michelangelo: Art, Anatomy, and the Kidney” Kidney International, Vol. 57, pp.1190-1201, 2000.

• Ferrari, G. “Anatomy Lessons and the Carnival: The Anatomy Theatre of Bologna” Past & Present, No. 117, pp. 50-106, November 1987.

• Galassi, F., Ruggeri, A., Petti, K. and Ashrafian, H. “Marvels of the Bologna Anatomical Wax Museum: Their theoretical and clinical importance in the training of 21st century medical students” HAPS Educator, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 4-9, 2015.

• Garrison, D. H., et al “Anatomy and Art Through the Ages” Karger Gazette, No. 73, October 2013.

• Gelsi, R., Ruggeri, A., Petti, K., et al “The Mermaid Models of the Bologna Wax Collection” HAPS Educator, Vol. 20, No. 1. pp. 56-58, 2015.

• Gosh, S.K. “Evolution of Illustrations in Anatomy: A Study from the Classical Period in Europe to Modern Times” Anatomical Sciences Education, 8:175-188, 2015.

• Harcourt, G. “Andreas Vesalius and the Anatomy of Antique Sculpture” Representations, No. 17, pp. 28-61, Winter 1987.

• Kemp, M. “Style and Non-Style in Anatomical Illustration: From Renaissance Humanism to Henry Gray” Journal of Anatomy, 216, pp. 192-208, 2010.

• Klestinec, C. “Civility, Comportment, and the Anatomy Theater: Girolamo Fabrici and His Medical Students in Renaissance Padua” Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 60, No. 2, pp. 434-463, Summer 2007.

• Laurenza, D. Art and Anatomy in Renaissance Italy: Images from a Scientific Revolution, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin – Winter 2012.

• Lazzeri, D. “Concealed lung anatomy in Botticelli’s masterpieces Primavera and Birth of Venus” Acta Biomed 2017; Vol.88, N.4: 502-509.

• Lazzerini, L. “Anatomy and Blood Sacrifices in the Renaissance Period: The Frontispiece of De Humani Corporis Fabrica by Andreas Vesalius and the Sacrificial Scene” in Blood – Symbol – Liquid, by Santing, C. and Touber, J. editors, pp. 83-102, Peeters, 2012.

• Macchi, V. et al. “Gabriel Falloppius (1523-1562) and the Facial Canal” Clinical Anatomy, 27:4-9 (2014).

• Maraldi, N.M., et al. “Anatomical Waxwork Modeling: The History of the Bologna Anatomy Museum” The Anatomical Record (New Anatomist), 261, pp. 5-10, 2000.

• Mavrodi, A., et al. “The History and the Art of Anatomy: A Source of Inspiration Even Nowadays” Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embryology, Vol. 118, n. 3: 267-276, 2013.

• Meshberger, F. “An Interpretation of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam Based on Neuroanatomy” Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 264, No.14, pp. 1837-1841, 1990.

• Nicosia, S. Anatomical Waxes in 18th Century Italy, History of Pathology Symposium, 95th Annual Meeting United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Georgia, 2006.

• Panzer, S. et al. “Multidetector CT Investigation of the Mummy of Rosalia Lombardo (1918–1920)” Annals of Anatomy, Vol. 195, pp. 401–408, 2013.

• Panzer, S. et al. “Radiologic Evidence of Anthropogenic Mummification in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Sicily” RadioGraphics, Vol. 30, pp.1123–1132, 2010.

• Park, K. commentary in: Andreas Vesalius: De Humani Corporis Fabrica, Octavo CD Edition, ISBN: 1-891788-10-8, 1998.

• Park, K. “The Criminal and the Saintly Body: Autopsy and Dissection in Renaissance Italy” Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp.1-33, Spring 1994.

• Park, K. “The Life of the Corpse: Division and Dissection in Late Medieval Europe” Journal of the History of Medicine, Vol. 50, pp. 111-132.

• Petti, K. “Anatomia Italiana” HAPS EDucator, Vol. 14, Issue 2, Summer 2010.

• Pilcher, L. S. “The Mondino Myth” Medical Library and Historical Journal, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 311- 331, December 1906.

• Piombino-Mascali, D., et al. “The Catacomb Mummies of Sicily A State-of-the-Art Report (2007-2011)” Antrocom Online Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 8. No. 2, 2012.

• Porzionato, A., et al. “The Anatomical School of Padua” The Anatomical Record, Vol. 295, No. 6, pp. 902-16, June 2012.

• Riva, A., et al. “Evolution of Anatomical Wax Modeling in Italy from 16th-19th Centuries” Journal of Anatomy, Vol. 216, No. 2, pp. 209-222, February 2010.

• Ruggeri, A. “The Anatomical Wax Model Museum: Luigi Cattaneo” University of Bologna, 2002.

• Scarani, P. et. al. “Contemporaneous Anatomical Collections and Scientific Papers from the Late 19th Century School of Anatomy of Bologna: Preliminary Report” Clinical Anatomy, 14:19-24, 2001.

• Sigerist, H. E. “The Foundation of Human Anatomy in the Renaissance” Sigma Xi Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 8-12, March 1934.

• Sinha, D.N. “Ancient Human Cadaveric Dissection” National Journal of Clinical Anatomy, Vol. 4(1), pp. 53-57, 2015.

• Strauss, R.M. and Marzo-Ortega, H. “Michelangelo and Medicine” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Vol. 95, October 2002.

• Suk, I. and Tamargo, R. J. “Concealed Neuroanatomy in Michelangelo’s Separation of Light from Darkness” Neurosurgey, Vol. 66, pp. 851-861, 2010.

• Tega, W. “Room 5 – The School of Obstetrics” in Guide to the Museo di Palazzo Poggi: Science and Art, 2nd Edition. Editrice Compositori, Bologna, Italy, 2001. pp. 62-69.

• Tega, W. “Room 6 – Ercole Lelli’s Anatomical Waxworks” in Guide to the Museo di Palazzo Poggi: Science and Art, 2nd Edition. Editrice Compositori, Bologna, Italy, 2001. pp. 72-81.

• Tega, W. “Room 7 – Morandi and Manzolini’s Anatomical Waxworks” in Guide to the Museo di Palazzo Poggi: Science and Art, 2nd Edition. Editrice Compositori, Bologna, Italy, 2001. pp. 84-94.

• Zampieri, F., et al. “Andreas Vesalius: Celebrating 500 years of dissecting nature” Global Cardiology Science and Practice, Vol. 66, 2015.

Below is a reference list of scholarly books that examine the connection between art and anatomy. 

• Carlino, A. Books of the Body: Anatomical Ritual and Renaissance Learning, University of Chicago Press, 1999.

• Cunningham, A. The Anatomical Renaissance: The Resurrection of the Anatomical Projects of the Ancients, Scolar Press, 1997.

• Klestinec, C. Theaters of Anatomy: Students, Teachers, and Traditions of Dissection in Renaissance Venice, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.

• O’Malley, C. and Saunders, J. Leonardo da Vinci: Leonardo on the Human Body. Dover, 1983.

• Park, K. Secrets Of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection, Zone Books, 2006.

• Rifkin, B. and Ackerman, M. Human Anatomy: From the Renaissance to the Digital Age, Abrams Publishers, 2006.

• Riva, A (editor). Flesh and Wax: The Clemente Susini Anatomical Models in the University of Cagliari, Ilisso, 2007.

• Saunders, J. and O’Malley, C. The Anatomical Drawings of Andreas Vesalius, Bonanza Books, 1982.

• Sawday, J. The Body Embalzoned: Dissection and the Human Body in Renaissance Culture, Routledge, 1995.

• Stone, I. The Agony and The Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo,  New American Library, 1961.

• Von During, M., Poggesi, M. and Didi-Huberman, G. Encyclopaedia Anatomica: Museo La Specola Florence, Taschen, 1999.

• Wallace, W. Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man, and His Times, Cambridge University Press, 2010.