76 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



and personality, and experienced little trouble in opening doors 

 and channels barred to other persons. 



The minds of the artists were untrammeled by the tradi- 

 tional bias revolving around anatomy; they were men who were 

 enthusiastic, trained in making careful visual observations, anxious 

 both to perform dissections and draw accurate illustrations. It is 

 possible that the practice was offensive to some but, nevertheless, 

 they were greatly responsible for advancing the study of all forms 

 of human anatomy. Their observations, revealed through their 

 drawings, paintings and statues, had scientific exactitude and in- 

 troduced a fresh approach. It was they who taught the public 

 the importance of anatomy through the realism of their work. 

 Undoubtedly, they took more than a casual interest in human 

 anatomy and through their collective effort more naturalism was 

 attained in their creative art. 



Of all the artist-anatomists of the Renaissance period, it was 

 Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) who was the most outstanding. 

 In terms of the evolution of anatomy, it was he who was the leader 

 in the transition from the mediaeval to the modern world. In 

 1516, three years before his death, at the age of sixty-four, he made 

 the remark that he had dissected more than 100 human subjects, 

 many of them at Florence. During his lifetime, he made 779 

 anatomical drawings, on 235 sheets. Some lacked systematic ar- 

 rangement. This is evidence that he studied anatomy voraciously 

 and observed keenly; in fact, this work was done basically in prep- 

 aration for an anatomical treatise which he wished to write. 

 No less an authority than William Hunter classified him as the 

 greatest anatomist of his era. 



From the standpoint of da Vinci's interest in anatomy, whic h 

 began at the age of seventeen, his life can be divided into three 

 periods: those intervals spent successively in Florence, Milan 

 and Rome. He accomplished most in Milan, where he resided for 

 thirty-one years, dissecting when the opportunity presented itself. 



During and after serving an apprenticeship under Verrocchio. 

 the artist, in Florence, he studied flayed bodies, that is, ones from 

 which the skin had been totally removed, permitting examination 

 of the superficial muscles. His notes tell of anatomizing at the 

 Santa Maria Nuova liospital in Florence, where he spent thirteen 



