Under mediaeval skin

Ross MacFarlane explores anatomical depictions of the human body in the past

The Art of Anatomy in Mediaeval Europe

Taylor McCall

Reaktion Books 2023

Hb, 223pp, £16.95, ISBN 9781789146813

In Thomas Harris’s novel

Red Dragon (1981), a body is discovered with multiple weapons protruding from it, seemingly the latest victim of a serial killer. On investigation, FBI officer Will Graham discovers how the victim was once treated by a Dr Hannibal Lecter. On visiting Lecter’s office – and discovering his collection of historical medical textbooks – Graham understands the arrangement of the victim’s body to be a recreation of an image of the mediaeval period, the so-called “Wound Man”.

This referencing of the “Wound Man” – which would again be drawn on in the Hannibal TV series (2013-15) – is outside the scope of Taylor McCall’s study but it alludes to how historic images of the body can still carry a potent and visceral cultural charge. Harris’s use also speaks to the seemingly ever-lingering sense of the “mediaeval” as a shorthand for the barbaric and undeveloped. As such, is it any wonder that texts from that time, and images from them, could serve as the inspiration for a fictional serial killer?

The Art of Anatomy in Mediaeval Europe makes the case for the intellectual richness of renderings of the interior of the human body during this period, and the precise and detailed meanings inherent in such images. McCall’s account shows how Bloodletting and Zodiac figures were visual representations to explain the wider effect of astrology on medical practice. Also, that the Wound Man was not just a visualisation of violence – it was part of a text on the treatment of such injuries.

Like the other entries in Reaktion’s “Mediaeval Lives” series, McCall’s book combines a crisp and concise writing style with cutting-edge scholarship. This is particularly prevalent when laying to rest some long-lasting myths on the topic: for example, dissection was a lot more common in mediaeval society than is usually supposed and that there were no religious bans on the practice, whether from Christianity or Islam.

McCall’s subtle discussion on the idealised nature of the visual tropes she investigates is one that has wider relevance than just to her time-period. As she points out, many mediaeval anatomical images were diagrams rather than natural representations and any medical diagram – whether from the present day or the past – involves a subjective choice made by the image’s creator. It’s this theoretical underpinning, combined with an easy-worn familiarity with the meaning and manufacture of manuscripts, that makes this book such an intellectually rich and satisfying read.

One last detail: the anatomical images McCall discusses have survived in no small part due to the durability of mediaeval parchment – so, images of human anatomy are still with us due to being drawn onto the skin of an(other) animal. Perhaps an irony that would have had Dr Lecter raising his eyebrow (or licking his lips).

★★★★