Dissecting Art, Intersecting Anatomy - Medical illustration

Pauline Lariviere was an artist whose main contributions were made to the field of medical illustration. As a scientist in the medical field, medical illustrations are essential to education. I have already spent some hours drawing something in the computer for a paper or presentation. In old times, all illustrations were done by hand, but nowadays computers play an important role and medical images are often used as a basis to medical illustrations. Here is an example of a medical illustration based on a CT scan:


The video is about an exhibition which pays a tribute to Pauline Lariviere.

Dissecting Art; Intersecting Anatomy from Phillip Schalekamp on Vimeo.

More about the history of medical illustration and the role of computers can be read in:
Tsafrir, J., & Ohry, A. (2001). Medical illustration: from caves to cyberspace‡ Health Information & Libraries Journal, 18 (2), 99-109 DOI: 10.1046/j.1471-1842.2001.d01-16.x
Corl, F., Garland, M., & Fishman, E. (2000). Role of Computer Technology in Medical Illustration American Journal of Roentgenology, 175 (6), 1519-1524 DOI: 10.2214/ajr.175.6.1751519

Sculptures inspired by medical imaging

Cao Hiu is a Chinese artist, who took the art of sculptures to the next level. The outside of the sculpture looks like ancient Greek sculptures, but the inside looks just like the inside of a body. He used MRI references to build the interior of the sculpture. Not only these sculptures look interesting and accurate, they can also be quite educational...



More images can be found here.

Leonardo Da Vinci and medical images

Before there were medical imaging devices, medical images were provided by experts. This is not intended as diagnosis, but rather as education images. Leonardo Da Vinci was one of these experts. Some of his works are part of the Royal Trust Collection. His drawings were so anatomically accurate that nowadays they are being compared to today's medical images. A more detailed text can be found here.




Here are the links of some of his artwork:
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-the-mechanics-of-man-QGPHH
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/919057/recto-the-skull-sectioned-verso-the-cranium
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/919127/the-brain