Christopher Wren, Thomas Willis and the depiction of the brain and nerves.
This paper is about Christopher Wren's engravings for Thomas Willis' The Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves of 1664. It is a study in the intersection of medicine and art in 17th century Britain. Willis, an eminent English physician and anatomist, was a major figure in the development of modern neurology, and The Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves was his most famous and influential book. Wren was Willis' assistant and medical artist. I discuss the visual strategies employed by Wren to present their research and frame it as genuine knowledge.
Neher
Allister
A
Humanities Department, Dawson College, 3040 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3Z 1A4, Canada. aneher@dawsoncollege.qc.ca
D001877:Books / Q000266:history*; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D049670:History, 17th Century; D006801:Humans; D008488:Medical Illustration / Q000266:history*