The Beautiful Brain: The Drawings of Santiago Ramón y Cajal

The anatomical revival of the Renaissance saw the human figure assume a new importance in both medical practice and popular culture. Established artistic conventions served a rhetorical purpose, reminding viewers that images of the body were being used to explore the place of humanity within the created world. These questions were particularly acute when investigating the brain and speculating on its role in forming a sense of the self. The practice of dissection on human cadavers advocated by Vesalius and taken up by later anatomists, offered new ways of "seeing" and understanding the brain.

Anne Garner and Dr. Richard Flamm will discuss images of the brain in the historic volumes in the Grey Gallery's exhibition "The Beautiful Brain: The Drawings of Santiago Ramón y Cajal," dating from 1523 to 1911. The discussion will focus on the representation of the brain in early print culture, both in terms of philosophical questions about the role of the brain, and the important place of illustrated anatomical atlases in the history of the early modern book.

Speakers

Eugene S. Flamm, MD, rare book collector and Jeffrey P. Bergstein Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurosurgery, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center

Anne Garner, Curator, Rare Books and Manuscripts, New York Academy of Medicine Library