Human Anatomy: Depicting the Body from the Renaissance to Today

Benjamin A. Rifkin Michael J. Ackerman Judy Folkenberg Thames & Hudson, £17.95 050051299X

From the early Renaissance on, our drive to discover, uncover and map the unknown has found rich pickings in the human body. Laying it bare from bone to skin became a mania among medics and artists alike, starting with Leonardo da Vinci and gaining momentum with the likes of Jacopo Berengario da Carpi, Andreas Vesalius, and later William Cheselden, John Hunter and today's digital modellers.

Human Anatomy: Depicting the Body from the Renaissance to Today by Benjamin A. Rifkin, Michael J. Ackerman and Judy Folkenberg (Thames & Hudson, £17.95) dissects this history with elegance — and with the aid of 320 stunning illustrations that cover the gamut of styles, from Baroque surreality to the drily detached.

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