Photos by Chris Meyer Jim Beck, medical sculptor, IUPUI Visual Media, holds one of his creations. The model ear was designed to help a surgeon demonstrate how to suture the back of the ear. Using models constructed of tissue similar to that found in the human body enables physicians and scientists to test ideas without risk to patients. Beck (photo, inset above) works on the detail of a bobble head doll. Visual Media sculptors create both medical application and commemorative items. Chris Brown, medical illustrator, IUPUI Visual Media, works on a project at his computer. In preparation for a career, medical illustrators study outer surface anatomy and relationships in numerous life drawing classes and workshops as part of an undergraduate education. Detailed anatomy involving the study of cells, diseases, physiology, brain, musculature, nerves, organs and blood vessels is accomplished through dissection in anatomy and histology laboratories. Brown (photo inset) stands next to an anatomical statue he created.

A truly creative marriage of art, technology and science, the staff offers services in graphic design, illustration, photography, sculpture and video/multimedia, primarily for the faculty and staff of the IU School of Medicine and secondarily, for the faculty and staff of all the campuses of IU, said Thomas Weinzerl, the department’s director. His staff’s expertise might be used to illustrate the musculature of the human body for a textbook, to devise a body form to teach anatomy in the classroom or to design a health education poster to hang in grade school hallways.

“To quote from the Association of Medical Illustrators Web site: ‘We draw what can’t be seen, watch what’s never been done, and tell thousands about it without saying a word,’” said Weinzerl.

Medical illustrators have inside knowledge of the human body, so to speak. They study outer surface anatomy and relationships in numerous life drawing classes and workshops as part of an undergraduate education. Detailed anatomy involving the study of cells, diseases, physiology, brain, musculature, nerves, organs and blood vessels is studied through dissection in anatomy and histology laboratories.

“I was actually going to be a physician,” Weinzerl said, “but one day in a physiology class I was drawing—I was always good at art. The professor said to me, ‘You know, you should consider going into medical illustration.’ I looked into it, and that’s what I did.”

Weinzerl graduated from the University of Illinois, one of eight schools currently offering programs in medical illustration. Along with Illinois, Johns Hopkins University, the Medical College of Georgia, the University of Toronto, the University of Michigan, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the Cleveland Institute of Art all offer master’s degrees. The Cleveland Institute and the Rochester Institute of Technology also offer baccalaureate programs.

“Modern” medical illustration began during the late 19th century, according to Weinzerl. Max Brodel (1870-1941) professionalized the discipline and led it into the 20th century by establishing the first academic program at Johns Hopkins. But the profession’s very early beginnings, according to several online historical accounts, can be traced back to 13,000 B.C. and the Lascaux caves in the Dordogne region of what is now France, where early man painted a human figure with a wound and protruding intestines. The Egyptians, from 2613 to 332 B.C., became familiar with internal anatomy while preparing the dead for mummification, and the Greeks had developed an accurate sense of surface anatomy, demonstrated through their figure sculptures, by 500 B.C.

The profession’s background is, to say the least, colorful, and includes the names of some of the world’s most illustrious artists and their works of art.

Famous for his figure of man, called Canon of Proportions, Leonardo da Vinci had dissected 30 men and women of all ages, along with snakes, monkeys, birds and frogs by 1517, to produce a collection of sketches and notes representing the first precisely accurate medical illustrations of external and internal anatomy.

“Michaelangelo did that, also,” said Weinzerl. “Because of religious reasons, early anatomic investigation was not allowed, and artists would often sneak into vaults and tombs to find cadavers.”

Indeed, da Vinci left the Vatican to avoid prosecution for his medical investigations.

Titian worked with a surgeon’s sketches to create woodblock cuts of internal bodily mysteries that would illustrate On the Fabric of the Human Body, the most impressive 16th-century anatomy text, and Rembrandt painted an arm dissection of an executed criminal, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp.

Other accounts cite a 1491 painting by Johannes de Ketham of a dissection. It portrays a gentleman sitting in a chair overseeing the dissection, and, according to one Web site devoted to medical illustration, this is believed to be the origin of the term “chairman of the department.”

The field of medical illustration has grown beyond drawing and painting, a development that easily can be seen with Weinzerl’s IUPUI department.

“The School of Medicine had two distinct areas that offered educational and medical/scientific media services,” he said. “Medical Illustration, which began in 1934, offered services in design, medical illustration, photography, PowerPoint and sculpture. The Medical Education Resources Program (MERP) offered services in continuing medical education, audio/visual equipment, learning resources and creative services. MERP was separated into different areas in 2002, and its staff merged with Medical Illustration to become Visual Media.”

The future of professionals in medical illustration and visual media is sure to change as technology and medicine continue to push the artistic envelope. Could a Fantastic Voyage experience with miniaturized people traveling through the human body ever become reality for a real up close and personal look? Who knows, but if so, would Weinzerl sign up for the ride?

“Absolutely!”

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