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shonaningyo's review
5.0
One of the greatest compilations of medicine-influenced art I have ever read, or will read. It starts at the beginning, with primitive tapestries and diagrams of the human body as each culture and religion saw it. Chakra points, the four humors, the organs where they were believed to be (human dissection was not allowed by the church until after the Black Death, so the best they could do was draw references from pigs, who have similar anatomy to us), and much, much more. You can see how culture and religion plays a part in what human physiology was centuries ago, and the steps taken forward as medicine began to evolve and mature into more science than magic.
Da Vinci's drawings are in here, as well as charms and amulets from tribes of Africa, medical pages, bottles of medicine to cure things like coughs, and portrayals of disease as skeletons, winged figures, demons, etc. The art in the Rennaissance section was absolutely beautiful; I especially liked the paintings of the woman with the stomach seemingly cut open to reveal the baby inside her as she sat, and the red, white, and gray chalking of a naked woman caressing herself with her back to us, revealing her spinal cord with all the ligaments shown in such detail.
I highly recommend this book for those wishing to see art in its stages, for medicine and its development comes with its own artistic style and history, as well as its own development and stages that you can see for your very eyes in this book.
Da Vinci's drawings are in here, as well as charms and amulets from tribes of Africa, medical pages, bottles of medicine to cure things like coughs, and portrayals of disease as skeletons, winged figures, demons, etc. The art in the Rennaissance section was absolutely beautiful; I especially liked the paintings of the woman with the stomach seemingly cut open to reveal the baby inside her as she sat, and the red, white, and gray chalking of a naked woman caressing herself with her back to us, revealing her spinal cord with all the ligaments shown in such detail.
I highly recommend this book for those wishing to see art in its stages, for medicine and its development comes with its own artistic style and history, as well as its own development and stages that you can see for your very eyes in this book.
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