Friday, December 28, 2007

Anatomical Illustration Then and Now

Saw the Body Worlds 2 exhibition. An amazing life size 3d version of the old anatomy books such as Bartolomeo Eustachius' "Explicatio Tabularum Anatomicarum."

I put together another ebook combining the works of Bartolomeo Eustachi and the work of Bernardino Genga. You can see it at http://figure-drawings.com/engravings.html

Eustachius - Wikipedia article - was born in the early 16th century and died in1574. He first described the small stirrup shaped bone in the ear and the canal connecting the ear to the mouth, which was given his name.

His work was not published until the beginning of the eighteenth century at the expense of Pope Clement XI.

Tabulae Anatomicae
iconSee the copies for sale at Alibris. There are both 1714 editions and modern reprints.

The Body Worlds exhibits are more fortunate in showing their work, according to the website 25 million people have visited the exhibitions.

Links:

anatomie femme (1937)

anatomie

anatomie femme (1939)

anatomie femme (1903)

anatomie (1937)

anatomie femme (1903)

anatomie (~1900)

anatomie homme

A post about Bernardino Genga:

ANATOMIA PER USO ET INTELLIGENZA DEL DISEGNO - BERNARDINO GENGA - 1620 - 1690

Elements of Drawing


I found this old folder with two portfolios of figure drawings by Swiss Artist Edward Stiefel. He was active at the beginning of the twentieth century and was one of a number of artists who contributed to a series of portfolios about learning to draw published by Stehli Brothers.

This one includes first a section on figure drawing. Each page generally has a seated or standing figure illustrated along with another drawing which shows in red lines the kind of connections an artist sees when proportioning a figure.

The second section is a series of drawings of details of the figure, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, arms legs, hands feet.

http://figure-drawings.com/drawing-elements.html