Michelangelo’s Secret Anatomy Book

By Sue Tatem

Michelangelo used images of human anatomy throughout his work. Nearly the entire body is there, albeit in pieces. Michelangelo began his career with extensive dissections of human corpses and ended his career talking about illustrating an anatomy book. He was hinting, as the anatomy was already there in his art. Perhaps at the time he made the art, he worried that it was too dangerous for his own person to reveal the secular anatomy theme. At the time, Renaissance scholars were studying human anatomy and trying to work out how the organs functioned. Many of them, like Leonardo da Vinci and Vesalius, self-published using their art. Herein are some of Michelangelo’s “self-published” contributions, human anatomy in his art and self-portraits, in the Sistine Chapel, paintings, and sculpture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483663258

Sue Tatem

The Toet (H. Randolph Tatem III, MD) wrote about Varmint, our beloved cat. Varmint was an odd-eyed white long haired cat. Sue Binkley Tatem, Ph.D. wrote about the colors and illustrated both stories. Sue also illustrated other childrens’ books: The Reluctant Racehorse by Kyra Knoll, and A Thousand Eyes by Paddy Fleming (a dog story set in Africa).

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Sue Tatem. 599189

ISBN:

Softcover 978-1-4836-6324-1

Ebook 978-1-4836-6325-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 06/29/2019

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank Beverly Spicer for her imaginative insights and her patient copyediting. I thank her for her inspiring marathon phone calls for discussion and editing. Beverly has infectious enthusiasm and insatiable curiosity. She is the author of The Ka’bah: Rhythms of Culture, Faith and Physiology (University Press of America 1003) and Open Ceilings: Women of Power Outside the Paradigm, Coming of Age Press, 1994.

For their wonderful books, helpful correspondence, editing, illustrations, and online postings, I thank Simon Abrahams, J. Wesson Ashford, M.D., Ph.D., Marco Bussagli, H. Randolph Tatem, III, M. D., Howard J. Freeman (Slidemaster), Gary Barkley, Dennis Pelliccia, Pitkin County Librarians, Martin Kober, Antonio Forcellino, Gilson Barreto, William Wallace, Paul Barolsky, Bernardine Barnes, Benjamin Blech, Roy Doliner, John Spike, Angela K. Nickerson, Enrico Bruschini, Kleetus K. Varghese, Gabriella Fiorucci Pascarelli, Dan Brown, and Marcelo G. de Oliveira.

I thank my art teachers: John Wade, Kat Parkin, Lyn Hemley, Joan Leatherbury, Beth Shadur, Liz Frazier, Georgeann Waggaman, Betty Weiss, Dotty Fox, Amy Fulstone, Catherine Cabaniss, Megan de Sabatino, Colleen Claire, Virginia Blackstock, Kurt Isgreen, Jason Lasser, Cami Thompson, Lynette O Kane, Gerry Michel, Ralph Petty, Elizabeth Emerson, Steve Lewis, Bob Ross, David Dunlop, and Sue Sheewee.

Front Cover

I found this profile of a possible Michelangelo self-portrait in the beard of his Moses statue in the tomb of Julius. The index finger is in the mouth of the profile.

Back Cover

This is a watercolor self-portrait painted by Sue Tatem of herself as a lei vendor

PREFACE

This book follows Michelangelo: Faces and Anatomy in his Art, Xlibris, 2010 by Sue Tatem. It is not a second edition, but more of an update and addendum or sequel. It benefits from discussions among the group of people who have been studying the anatomy in Michelangelo’s art. There are hundreds of anatomies that have been found. The number is overwhelming, more than I can show you in a short book, but I can tell you where to find them. While some material from the first book is repeated, this volume is intended to add to what I have already presented.

There are now (counting this book) four books on the anatomy of Michelangelo. There is this book and Michelangelo: Faces and Anatomy in his Art by me. There is Sistine Secrets (Blech and Doliner, 2008) that also describes the hidden images of Judaism. There is A Arte Secreta de Michelangelo (Barreto and de Oliviera, 2007) that displays over a hundred pieces of anatomy. There is the three part online essay by Abrahams (Michelangelo’s Art Through Michelangelo’s Eyes, 2005). There is the book by Bussagli 92007) about the face composition of the Last Judgment. The study of the anatomy is now a well-defined part of the art history of Michelangelo.

Eknoyan (2000) discusses Michelangelo’s plans for …an anatomical treatise for artists and to collaborate in an anatomical text for students of medicine … on all manner of human movements and appearances and on the bone structure. Michelangelo did just that with his art and therein lies the secret.

Bussagli (2000, p. 29) writes "The anatomical knowledge acquired by Michelangelo also thanks to the collaboration of Realdo Colombo, his physician and author of a De re Anatomica (1559) was skillfully employed by the artist…" Realdo Columbo (Matteo Realdo Colombo or Renaldus Columbus), 1516- 1559) was a professor of anatomy and a surgeon 1544-1559 at the University of Padua where his anatomy book succeeded the one by Vesalius (1543).

Imagine this thought experiment. The Sistine Chapel is empty but well lit, just after the crowds leave for the day. A small group of physicians, scientists, artists, and tour guides walk into the Chapel, not through the back door under the Last Judgment, but the main door across the chapel that was the original entry. Each is armed with a laser pointer. In voices that echo in the vast room, they point out the anatomies that Michelangelo painted. They worry about whether the restorations have removed clues left by Michelangelo. They agonize over the piece at the bottom of the Last Judgment that was once visible. They wonder if Michelangelo left anything behind the wall when he bricked over the windows.

I did these books for friends and family and Michelangelo’s memory. I have made no effort to promote them. I give them away free. [e-mail]

The book assumes some knowledge of Michelangelo’s art or the willingness to look for it online or in the library.

In the room, the people come and go, speaking of Michelangelo

(paraphrase T.S. Eliot)

DEDICATIONS

To Michelangelo,

On the 2012 occasion

Of the 500th anniversary of

of his painting of the

Sistine Ceiling

To souls:

Bruce Fretz

William LeMaster

Janet Baker

Scott Alter

QUOTATIONS

"There are three classes of people:

Those who see.

Those who see when they are shown.

Those who do not see."

– Leonardo da Vinci

" All you need is one correct observation to

unlock the meaning of a masterpiece"

– Simon Abrahams (who can see)

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

THOSE WHO SEE

HUMAN DISSECTIONS

ANATOMY OF THE HEAD, THE LAST JUDGMENT

ANATOMY OF THE BRAIN, THE SISTINE CEILING

ANATOMY OF THE BODY, THE SISTINE CEILING

ARTISTIC CROSS TALK

DID MICHELANGELO SIGN THE SISTINE