The Macabre in Marble: Michelangelo's Knowledge of Surface Anatomy in its Wider Intellectual Contexts, 1493-1559

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I will formulate the first focused study on Michelangelo Buonarotti's (1475-1564) knowledge of surface anatomy. During the artist's lifetime, Anatomy was not the autonomous scientific subject it eventually became. Studies of the human body were intertwined with theology, philosophy and antiquity. Michelangelo's art is exemplary of this, displaying an acute anatomical knowledge grounded in a holistic mindset. With that in mind, my key questions are: what can Michelangelo's art tell us about his understanding of Anatomy as a broad intellectual discourse? And what can this overarching approach reveal about Renaissance intellect as a whole?I must firstly study medical treatises contemporary to Michelangelo - e.g. Jacopo Berengario de Carpi Issagoge breves (1522), Juan Valverde de Amusco Historia de la composición del cuerpo humano (1556), Realdo Colombo De re anatomica (1559) - reading them alongside religious and philosophical texts e.g. Marsilio Ficino Theologia platonica de immortalitate animorum (1482), Giannozzo Manetti De dignitate et excellentia hominis (1453), the sermons of Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) and Egidio da Viterbo (1472-1532). These works have been explored, but in theoretical isolation. I will read them encyclopaedically, as Michelangelo would have, and use this knowledge to re-analyse the artist's works.Evidence for my hypothesis is present in his drawings e.g. Study for the Creation of Adam (British Museum) and Nude Male Torso (Ashmolean Museum) - and poems (Le Rime, 1863 p.151 and trans. Saslow, 1991 p.10). Using a period eye to contextualise physical science in broader metaphysical ideas will provide an authentic interpretation of Michelangelo's bodies.