Leonardo and Michelangelo as Artists and Anatomists

(ARTH 231)

Human anatomical dissections, performed by Greek physicians in Alexandria, were forbidden by Rome and abandoned during the Middle Ages. This course will explore the amazing story of the renewal of human dissections and the interaction between art and anatomy during the Italian Renaissance. It will particularly focus on the lives of Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), the two brightest stars of the Renaissance, and the anatomical dissections that illuminated their art. In Renaissance Florence, the relationship between artists and physicians was especially close, and the two groups belonged to the same major guild. This close relationship had benefits for both groups, and it explains how Andreas Vesalius could produce De Humani Corporis Fabrica, a groundbreaking anatomy textbook, with magnificent illustrations made by artists in Titian’s bottega. By delving into the work of Leonardo (his drawings and writings about human physiology, astronomy, physics, geology, and so on), we will gain a panoramic view of the dramatic transformation of science at the end of the Middle Ages. His errors were the beliefs of his time, and within a few decades after his death, many had been corrected. The course will be profusely illustrated, and most of Leonardo and Michelangelo’s great artistic creations will be shown and discussed.

Carlos Camargo, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, Division of Endocrinology

Carlos Camargo has been on the Stanford faculty since 1967 and has taught courses on medical history since 1973. He received the Kaiser Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching three times. Camargo is interested in the interaction of medicine with art, religion, and magic through history. He received an MD from the National University in Bogotá.