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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