The text discusses the early efforts in modern times to study the human body through dissection, crediting artists like Rosso for advancing anatomy through the examination of cadavers. It reflects on the ethical considerations of dissection but emphasizes its importance for understanding artistic representations of the human form. It concludes by advocating for the intellectual benefits gained from such studies.
Utility of Human Studies.
He was one of the first among the moderns to reasonably demonstrate the muscles, according to actions and workings. Similarly, it was told of the painter Rosso that he surreptitiously unearthed the dead and with great dedication created an anatomy or study of humans from them. Certainly, those who, in general reading and examination of examples, together with the continual drawing of academic figures, find the opportunity to dissect a human body, or to do so themselves in a decent manner, have the means to thoroughly understand the artistic composition of the greatest masterpiece of creation. What they observe here in a lifeless body, they can apply to the rules of their art. Although the dignity and respect that we always carry in our minds for our fellow humans somewhat discourages us, the custom of binding a deceased person in straps and seeing the bones stripped of their muscles, detach some of that reluctance. Sometimes, attending such dissections in a room for the dead brings strongly to mind that, according to the law of necessity, our bodies must eventually be sown in the earth to emerge again as an imperishable body. Whether this is achieved entirely through decomposition or through dissection partially advanced, the matter is resolved. Indeed, a vigorous soul should know that such treatments of the dead, quietly conducted, lead to the improvement of the mind altogether.
Translation Notes
"Anatomie" is translated as "anatomy". "Menschkunde" is translated as "human studies".