Rappresentare la vita. Alcune considerazioni sull’uso delle immagini nei manuali di anatomia artistica tra Settecento e Ottocento

Abstract

Back in the nineteenth century artistic anatomy was still a controversial teaching that was passively influenced by the changing aesthetic theories and taste. The professors of this discipline, often physicians at their first experience in an academy of fine arts, succeeded in becoming part of the education system with difficulty, struggling to find the right teaching method. In this hard research, a key turning point consisted in adopting a handbook the lessons could be based on. The wonderful complexity of the human machine was difficult to depict; from the osteological to the myological system, in the nineteenth century it still proved to be a challenging subject, able to discourage even the most talented. Plentiful questions had to stud the work of physicians and artists involved in conceiving a handbook of anatomy for fine arts. Many more had to determine the choices of those who would have to structure their educational activity through these handbooks. Starting from an Italian case study, this article shall attempt to analyse the longstanding issue of the truthfulness in anatomical representation, focusing especially on the problem of illustration technique. Some pivotal matters in this paper are those about the depiction of body movement and, on a higher theoretical level, those concerning the representation of its vitality, of its being matter endowed with life