translucent-header

Musculoskeletal Anatomy

Musculoskeletal Anatomy

MVS 230 Faculty Curator: Michele Bird (School of Kinesiology)

On view: Winter 2024

Hendrick Goltzius, The Farnese Hercules, ca 1592, engraving on medium weight laid paper, Museum purchase made possible by friends of the Museum of Art, 1994/2.13

Like the students in the School of Kinesiology, European artists of the early modern period (approximately the fourteenth to eighteenth century) devoted time and attention to the study of human anatomy. Beginning in the Italian Renaissance, scientific knowledge of the body developed hand in hand with artistic innovations in representing perspective, depth, and volume as scholars gained more detailed understanding of the inner structures of the body through dissection of human corpses.

The attention to anatomical detail in artworks such as those on display for this installation present interesting puzzles to the highly trained eyes of the Kinesiology students. What appears correct in these depictions of the muscles and bones of these human figures? What appears wrong, and can we describe these errors in the advanced language of contemporary anatomical understanding? Throughout the semester, students in Movement Science 230 will closely examine these artworks and write detailed analyses of the artists’ representations of musculoskeletal anatomy.

Works included in this collection

Curriculum / Collection

Explore the infinite value of art in shaping our understanding of...well, everything.

Currently On View View All Past Courses

UMMA - Feel Free. New Look. New Website. New Experience. Coming January 2024.

Feel Informed.

Sign up for updates.