Atlas Obscura After Hours Series: Anatomical Illustrations

The first full-scale attempts to illustrate the human body beginning in the sixteenth century featured skeletons and partially dissected figures - many very beautiful - sometimes called "muscle men" and "flayed men." Many of these depictions, innovative in their presentation of bones and muscle groups, were concerned not only with accuracy, but also with the nature of death. We'll look at the way changing attitudes toward the body and the development of new technologies, including printing techniques, photography and x-ray, changed the way artists rendered the body over time.

This event is part of the six-session 2016 series "After Hours: Inside the Rare Book Collections of The New York Academy of Medicine" presented by Atlas Obscura at the Academy.