History of Western Artistic Anatomy in the 19th Century: Prehistory of Artistic Anatomy in Japan.

Abstract

The study of artistic anatomy was established in the 17th century, and its education techniques were developed in the 19th century and brought to Japan in the Meiji era. Books of artistic anatomy published in the 19th century have been collected and classified into three periods. In the early period before 1828, education of artistic anatomy proper was preliminarily tried, and in the middle period before 1869, new educational methods were invented to adapt the education in the curriculum of the artistic academy. In the late period, various educational methods of artistic anatomy were combined and systematized to provide modem educational materials which are still in use. Medical illustration was developed in the 20th century, and is clearly distinguished from artistic anatomy. The present study reveals the genealogy of Western artistic anatomy as well as the historical background of artistic anatomy in Japan.