Theatrical Bodies: Acting Out Comedy and Tragedy in Two Anatomical Displays

Abstract

Culturally constructed relationships between art, science, and economics are reflected in human anatomy displays and entwined with their rhetorical efficacy. This paper juxtaposes Andre Vesalius’ 1543 book of anatomy, On the Fabric of the Human Body, with the contemporary anatomy display Bodies … The Exhibition in order to think about the cultural contexts that inform these works, the unique intents of their designers, and the visual similarities and differences that in some ways unite them and in other ways mark them as centuries apart. Ultimately, what becomes clear is how these two displays manifest two alternate visions—one Comic and one Tragic—of the human anatomy, both reflective of their cultural contexts.

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