Anatomic body

The analysis of the theme of the body aims to avoid a superficial treatment. It seeks to offer a deep and thoughtful reflection capable of returning the object of study the complexity it deserves. It starts from the origins, to investigate and discover the historical, cultural, and philosophical roots that have contributed to defining the perception and meaning of the human body.

The path to be explored concerns the dynamics that have gradually led humans to accept reductive representations of their own bodies, sometimes promoting the view of the body as a mere instrument. This process cannot be considered an inevitable fate, but rather the result of specific socio-cultural transformations that require a critical analysis.

The need to represent oneself is a distinctive trait of humanity. From the earliest artistic testimonies of the human body, such as those of the Gargas cave and the Paleolithic Steatopygian Venuses, humans have sought to express their existence through symbolic and artistic forms. Bill Brewer’s reflection in Perception and Reason suggests that humans do not passively respond to sensory stimuli, but build “mental maps” of reality to understand and interact with it meaningfully. In this context, the body is not a neutral entity but a complex reality, imbued with social and cultural meanings that go far beyond its physical dimension.

David Le Breton, in Le Corps, emphasizes that the body is never an objective given, but is always the result of symbolic systems that interpret and experience it. Therefore, the understanding of the body cannot be separated from the meanings attributed to it, influenced by historical and cultural contexts. An example of this vision is provided by the ancient Egyptians, who, despite possessing considerable medical knowledge, prioritized the preservation of the integrity of the external body, reducing the understanding of internal anatomy. Their representation of the body, rigorously schematic and symbolic, emphasized the frontal view of the torso, the profile of the face, and the abstraction of the limbs, a clear detachment from physical reality but capable of expressing a deep symbolic concept: the connection between the body and eternity, mediated by religion and the rituals of embalming.

In contrast to the Egyptians, the Greeks developed a concept of the body that attributed aesthetic and symbolic value to it. For them, the human body was not just a biological entity but the very symbol of beauty, perfection, and harmony. The Greeks recognized in the body the measure of all things, considering it not only as a physical structure but as an ideal model of beauty and virtue. Homer, when describing the body, used terms such as démas (form), gya (limbs), and chrôs (skin), giving the body a complex and articulated dimension. The Greek vision did not limit itself to conceiving the body as sôma (body), but as a concept that developed through aesthetics, philosophy, and culture, representing the ideal of harmony and proportion.

The Corpus Hippocraticum, with its focus on medicine as rational science, testifies to the Greek approach to the body. Although dissection was practiced to a limited extent, Hippocratic physicians sought to reconstruct the internal structure of the body through observation and touch, recognizing a correlation between the different parts of the body and the humors that pervaded it. According to the theory of the humors, health depended on the balance between blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. An imbalance in these humors was seen as the cause of illness. Moreover, the Hippocratic conception of the body as a microcosm suggested that each part of the body mirrored the external cosmos, influenced also by the stars, thus linking medicine to philosophy and astronomy.

This ideal of harmony between body and universe found expression in Greek art, where the human body, idealized in the figure of the athlete, represented the intersection of science and art. Greek sculptures, with their attention to muscular movement and the perfection of proportions, translated into marble a vision of the body as an expression of strength, beauty, and virtue. Muscular dynamics, transformed into an ideal form, not only celebrated physical perfection but also a concept of health as balance and harmony, in a continuous dialogue between science, art, and philosophy.

With the Renaissance, the representation of the human body underwent a radical transformation. The scientific approach that emerged in this period led to the dissociation between the body and religious symbolism, introducing a more concrete and anatomical reading of the human body. The dissection of cadavers, now more common, allowed for direct observation of the body’s internal structure, making possible new advances in the understanding of human physiology. This period marked a break with the Galenic model, and Western medicine approached a more precise and detailed vision of the body’s structure, without, however, losing the connection with the symbolic tradition, which, although less predominant, continued to influence some aspects of the culture of the time.

The contribution of Andreas Vesalius was fundamental in this change. His work De humani corporis fabrica, published in 1543, represented a true revolution in medicine and anatomy. Vesalius, through direct dissections and the analysis of cadavers, was able to correct many of the errors previously attributed to Galenic theory. His approach, based on empirical observation, demonstrated that many of Galen’s descriptions, which had never been based on direct dissections, were incorrect. His anatomical iconography, which distanced itself from the symbolic interpretation of the body, returned an extraordinarily precise image of the human structure.

Vesalius’ tables, which depicted the human body with great accuracy and detail, marked a crucial transition from the view of the body as a spiritual and symbolic entity to that of a complex biological machine to be understood and treated through scientific progress. In this context, medicine began to evolve towards an increasingly rational practice, distant from metaphysical and mystical interpretations.

Another aspect that contributed to this change was the close connection between art and science. Artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, who had already begun investigating the human body through dissections and anatomical drawings, greatly influenced the scientific understanding of the human body. His anatomical work not only showed the precision of his observations but also attempted to reconcile the artistic and scientific visions, highlighting the perfect machine that is the human body.

As the Renaissance progressed, the figure of the human body as an object of study emancipated itself from sacred and symbolic representations and began to be investigated in its physiological functions. Starting from Vesalius’ work, doctors and scientists developed an increasing interest in the “mechanics” of the body, as if it were a perfect machine whose mechanisms had to be understood to be cured or improved. This scientific approach to medicine led to fundamental discoveries, such as William Harvey’s understanding of blood circulation in 1628, when he demonstrated the functioning of the circulatory system through observation and experimentation.

Meanwhile, art also adapted to these new discoveries, depicting the human body no longer idealized but analyzed in its details. Artists such as Michelangelo, who had a deep knowledge of human anatomy, introduced greater anatomical precision into their work, while still maintaining their interest in emotional expression and beauty. Michelangelo, in his sculptures, depicted the human body with anatomical perfection that reflected not only aesthetic idealization but also a deeper understanding of its physiological functions.

During the 17th century, medicine continued to develop with further scientific discoveries. The roles of internal organs, glands, and systems were better understood, and medicine approached an increasingly integrated and rational view of the human body. However, despite the advances, artistic representations of the human body, while partly reflecting the new scientific approach, continued to maintain a symbolic and cultural dimension that could not be entirely separated from the religious or philosophical view of the body as the vehicle of the soul.

This duality between the material body and the symbolic body remained a constant in artistic and scientific representations, until modernity, when science and art would further evolve, with medicine making significant advances in the understanding of the human body, yet never losing its connection to its cultural and symbolic roots.

The abandonment of the mistake was never definitive. Indeed, jumping to the early 19th century, Franz Joseph Gall developed the psycho-physiological theory of phrenology. Gall, a German neuroscientist, claimed that he wanted to explore and study humans starting from the functions of the brain. According to Gall, specific “areas” of the brain were responsible for certain psychic faculties, and the intensity or presence of these functions could be detected through palpation of the skull, a method he himself called cerebral topography. The central idea of phrenology was that the brain was divided into functional areas, and the development and prominence of these areas could be detected through the shape of the skull. His goal was to correlate the shape of the head and the structure of the skull with psychological and behavioral characteristics.

Phrenology was, therefore, an evolution of the scientific tradition that attempted to map human anatomy through the “open” body and a kind of physical reading of psychological traits. Although Gall’s assumptions were incorrect, his approach represented one of the first modern intuitions about the idea that the mind and behavior could be linked to a physical structure of the brain, foreshadowing the concept of the localization of brain functions, which would be fully developed in the 20th century. Between 1810 and 1819, Gall published four volumes of his treatise Anatomie et physiologie du système nerveux en général et du cerveau en particulier, which explored the relationship between the brain and human behavior. The first two volumes were written together with his pupil Johann Christoph Spurzheim, who would later continue to develop the theory in a more systematic direction.

Gall and Spurzheim’s work was accompanied by an Iconographic Atlas that contained one hundred illustrated plates, where medicine and drawing intertwined. These plates showed how anatomy and physiognomy could be used to delineate psychological traits, based on the idea that different brain areas were connected to behavioral characteristics. The combination of these anatomical representations with psychic theories made phrenology a unique and fascinating system. For example, the idea that a prominent skull in certain areas could correspond to a particularly extroverted or aggressive personality attracted much interest in some sectors of science and art.

Phrenology had a significant impact on artists, especially on Théodore Géricault, the French painter famous for his painting The Raft of the Medusa. Géricault, influenced by phrenological theories, created a series of intense and dramatic portraits of individuals affected by neuroses and other mental afflictions. The artist explored the boundary between art and pathology, representing the complexity of the human psyche through the physical traits and expressions of those living with psychological disorders, thus transforming the representation of the body into a form of psychological analysis.

However, phrenology also has roots in the theories of Giambattista Della Porta, a Renaissance thinker who published De humana physiognomia in 1586, a work that explored the concept of physiognomy. This was the art of interpreting the physical traits of the face and body to deduce psychological, moral, and behavioral characteristics of an individual. Della Porta’s physiognomy, like Gall’s phrenology, was based on a deterministic view, where human behavior was closely linked to outward morphology.

These deterministic ideas intersected with the reflections of Charles Bell, an English physiologist who, in 1806, wrote Essay on the Anatomy of Expression. Bell explored the relationship between the movements of the soul and the facial muscles, seeking to establish a parallel between inner psychology and the outward manifestations of the body. According to Bell, the physicality of the facial muscles was the visible result of emotions and internal psychological states, offering a new understanding of the human body as a mirror of the soul. His work, which was part of a broader movement attempting to merge art and medicine, influenced not only the field of physiology but also the way facial expressions and physical signs of complex emotions were interpreted.

The research of Jean-Martin Charcot, a French neurologist, led to significant developments in the analysis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurological diseases. Charcot is known for systematically studying mental diseases, particularly hysteria, a disorder that primarily affected women, using a visual diagnosis of convulsions and physical symptoms. The photographs taken by Bourneville, Charcot’s assistant, in Iconographie photographique de la Salpétrière documented these phenomena in great detail, providing a new visual dimension to the disease. The images depicted women in states of crisis, exhibiting facial expressions of intense pain and loss of control, thus giving a face to the psycho-physiological theories of the disease.

In the context of these psycho-physical theories, the theory of atavism also emerged, which drew from the analysis of phenotypic traits. The term atavism, derived from the Latin atavus (ancestor), refers to the reappearance of hereditary traits that had been suppressed for generations. The theory was explored by Cesare Lombroso, who, in 1876, published L’uomo delinquente, in which he attempted to explain crime as a form of “biological regression,” suggesting that criminals possessed physical and behavioral traits similar to those of primitive humans. Lombroso tried to correlate certain physical traits, such as the shape of the skull, the presence of a prominent jaw, or protruding ears, to a predisposition to crime, classifying criminals as “atavistic” or regressed to a lower evolutionary stage.

Although Lombroso did not have racist or classist intentions, his theories were interpreted in problematic ways, contributing to the stigmatization of certain social, ethnic, and geographic groups, classifying them as more prone to crime. His pseudoscience was part of a broader context of race and social class, where physical traits were used to justify behaviors and social inequalities, fueling distorted and deterministic views of criminality.

Lombroso, despite all his inconsistencies and limitations, opened an important path for criminology and forensic psychiatry, stimulating a view of the individual more deeply rooted in biological and physical analysis. Thus, the need to catalog and classify emerged, creating order through the power of images, a tool that was extended to the colonial context.

Colonial photography, which developed in the 19th century, documented indigenous populations during the period of European colonialism in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. This form of documentation went beyond mere recording, becoming a propaganda tool that justified colonial dominance. The photographs portrayed the populations as “others,” exotic, and inferior, reinforcing the idea that they needed European “civilization.” In this case, photography not only had a documentary value but also contributed to building an ideological image that justified colonial oppression, depicting indigenous populations as primitive and the conquered lands as “virgin” and ready to be transformed by the modernity brought by colonialism.

The images, many of which were used in postcards, exhibitions, and publications, stimulated interest in the exotic, but at the same time contributed to building a racial hierarchy that positioned the West as superior. Colonial photographs served to encapsulate the concept of Orientalism, a term theorized by Edward Said, which describes how the West constructed distorted representations of the East and its cultures, interpreted as “others,” inferior, and savage. These images became part of a larger visual narrative that justified colonization as a “civilizing mission.”

At the beginning of the 20th century, the German photographer August Sander embarked on an ambitious project to catalog society in his work Men of the Twentieth Century. His work aimed to represent various social strata, starting with the lower classes, such as farmers and laborers, and reaching the upper classes residing in the metropolises. Photography, therefore, became a means of constructing a human typology that reflects a social vision influenced by the cultural and political contexts of the time. In this sense, Sander did not simply document but selected and constructed images that, despite claiming an apparent “objectivity,” carried a strong symbolic and ideological message.

For instance, in his portraits of farmers and laborers, Sander made extensive use of decorative objects or sets full of meaning, such as richly furnished spaces that referred to the idea of strength and solidity associated with physical labor. This choice, though seemingly neutral, expresses a deterministic view of society, suggesting that an individual’s social position is inevitably tied to their occupation and the environment in which they live. In portraits of the wealthier classes, on the other hand, the photograph focuses on the individual, minimizing the background and highlighting the subject itself. The absence of decoration and the attention to the figure suggest an ideal of separation and self-sufficiency, a detachment from the masses, almost elevating the individual to a superior social condition.

This representation strategy is not without tensions: while Sander intended to create a testimony of German social reality, his view of the world risked reinforcing existing prejudices and inequalities. The selection of subjects and details, as well as the emphasis on certain physical and behavioral traits, contributes to outlining a narrative that, although documenting, remains partial and permeated by an ideological imprint. Thus, Men of the Twentieth Century not only records an era but raises questions about the ways in which photography helps build visions of society, showing how images can convey a constructed reality rather than a truthful one.

Colonial photography, which developed in the 19th century, documented indigenous populations during the period of European colonialism in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. This form of documentation went beyond mere recording, becoming a propaganda tool that not only justified colonial dominance, but also constructed a distorted and ideological image of indigenous populations, portraying them as primitive, inferior, and in need of civilization. The photographs portrayed the populations as “others,” exotic, and less evolved, reinforcing the idea that they needed European “civilization.” In this case, photography not only had a documentary value but also contributed to building an ideological image that justified colonial oppression, depicting indigenous populations as primitive and the conquered lands as “virgin” and ready to be transformed by the modernity brought by colonialism.

In the post-colonial context, contemporary photographers such as Pieter Hugo have adopted a critical approach to traditional images of colonialism. Working primarily in West Africa, Hugo addresses the cultural, economic, and social consequences of colonialism, questioning Western representations of Africa and giving voice to marginalized realities. In works such as The Hyena & Other Men and Nollywood, Hugo investigates African identities through an aesthetic that blends formal portraiture with raw intensity, raising questions about the power of images to construct stereotypes and, at the same time, about possibilities for resistance and self-determination.

Hugo’s photography does not depict man as free in his absolute sense but places him within a social and economic context that shapes his existence. His art suggests that freedom is always relative and complex, but that in any case, forms of resistance and self-affirmation of identity exist, even within the limitations imposed by histories, cultures, and dominant powers.

Looking back to the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment saw a growing fascination with anatomy and the human body, leading to numerous developments in both science and art. One example of this exploration is represented by the Museum of La Specola in Florence, inaugurated in 1775, which became one of the main places where anatomy was studied and represented through life-size wax models. The art of creating anatomical waxes, developed by artists such as Gaetano Giulio Zumbo, became a practice of extreme precision, used both for scientific purposes and as a visual testament to knowledge of the human body. Zumbo’s anatomical waxes, in particular, were molded directly from cadavers, and were initially used as educational tools to teach anatomy and surgery, but soon acquired an artistic dimension, challenging the boundary between science and art.

This fascination with the human body and its most raw manifestations was not limited to science but also permeated art, where the human figure became a symbol of suffering, death, and transformation. The example of the sculpture Beata Ludovica Albertoni by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which depicts a woman in agony, is a testimony of how art could explore and represent death and decomposition in an extremely realistic manner.

An interesting intersection between anatomy and art was created by filmmaker David Cronenberg in his short film Four Unloved Women, Adrift on a Purposeless Sea, Experience the Ecstasy of Dissection. In this work, women are portrayed in a state of “ecstasy” during an anatomical dissection, taking place in a crystal-clear, artificial water, eliminating any boundary between reality and fiction. Cronenberg, with his postmodern style, creates a reflection on the boundary between the anatomical body and art, bringing forth an interpretation of the body that challenges traditional categories and aesthetic conventions.