Since the sixteenth century, when Andreas Vesalius' (1514-1564) drawings of dissections revolutionized our knowledge of human physiology, medical illustrators have become the ultimate portrait painters, rendering the essence of human life. To this day, medical illustrations remain the primary source of information for students of human biology and medicine. Continuing in the tradition of Vesalius, Howard Bartner of the Medical Arts and Photography Branch at the National Institutes of Health has devoted forty years to portraying human anatomy in his drawings. This exhibit looks at only a fraction of his work.
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Illustrator Howard Bartner
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Born in New York City in 1931, Howard Bartner discovered his artistic abilities early, painting landscapes and still lifes for his aunts and uncles. After graduating from the Stella Elkins Tyler School of Fine Arts at Temple University, Bartner found that medical illustration melded his interest in biology and the sciences with his artistic talent.
As a student in the medical arts graduate program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Bartner's first encounter with the cadaver was difficult, but the intricate beauty of the human body fascinated him. Now he draws his illustrations from original dissections, stopping periodically to sketch, or observing surgical procedures and examining patients. Bartner's direct observations often produce works of considerable artistic sensitivity and beauty.
In addition to his career at the National Institutes of Health, Bartner is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
