Customer Reviews

Albinus on Anatomy (Dover Anatomy for Artists)

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This oversized book contains over 200 illustrations of the human body, posed so as to be of use to the artist studying the human form. Beautiful and highly accurate, the book can be a valuable tool for the artist wishing to improve his skill through a better knowledge of human anatomy. Albinus himself is not solely responsible for the engravings. He collaborated with an artist who did the drawings and finally the copper plate engravings of the figure. In the meantime, Albinus arranged the poses and oversaw the process from rough sketches to the manipulations of the printing press, ensuring that the accuracy and quality of the images were preserved. The figures are represented with various layers of tissue exposed, first the nude model, then the outer layer of muscle, the next layer of muscle, the organs, down to the bare skeletons. Each layer has an anterior and a posterior view. The potential for the engravings to become a grim lesson on internal anatomy is offset by the engraving artist¹s whimsy. He was allowed artistic freedom with the background on each plate, and the settings range from a Greek temple to a verdant forest. In one plate a rhinoceros grazes directly behind the model. For the student of anatomy, each bone is taken individually, and the proportions, muscle attachments, and major connective tissue are shown for each in turn. A passionate introduction to drawing the human body starts the book off, and a complete index ties it together. The playful, detailed drawings make this book attractive to the artist and the art admirer alike. For its size and complexity, this book is a great buy.

Albinus on Anatomy is a great book. I am a printmaking student;My teacher introduced this book to me when I asked her about detailed etchings of the human figure. I love how intricate and delicate the lines are to create figure. They remind me of the prints of Rembrandt. For anyone interested in art, I really suggest this book. It's great for those studying to be medical illustrators, print students, the everyday sketchers.......ANYONE! It's also great for those who just love to learn about the anatomy of the body.

Length:: 0:28 Mins

Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697 - 1770) was a German-born Dutch anatomist which probably explains why even in the eighteen century, his drawings were so accurate. This anatomy book is a compilation of work from two books he wrote at that time, Tabulae Sceleti et Musculorum Corporis Humani (Tables of the Human Body) and Tabulae Ossium Humanorum (Table of the Human Bones).

When I first saw work of Albinus, it was in Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters. There's a skeleton posing in front of a grazing rhinoceros. And on the cover of this book, there's a cupid over a skeleton's shoulder, trying to throw a cloth over it. How cool is that?

Apparently, the drawings were actually copperplate engravings created with the help of Jan Wandelaar. He's the guy who added the decorative background art. It's great foresight to use long lasting engravings instead of print. The reproduction in this book is brilliant because of that, being able to retain all the details not lost to any degradation. You can still see clearly the intricate cross hatches that wrap onto the surface of muscles and bones.

The content is presented with both the original anatomy illustration together with an outlined line art with labels. There are also close ups on the specific parts, which are a marvel to look at. It's comprehensive enough but nothing is mentioned on how the muscles work or body functions.

Overall a pretty useful and definitely interesting anatomy reference book.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

Albinus on Anatomy is one of my favorite resources as a body worker and movement specialist. There are not many places where we have such wonderful pictures of the entire skeleton that are not in "anatomical position". The opening pages are not only works of art but give us visions of the inner workings of human anatomy as it lives and breaths and moves in everyday life. I highly recommend this book as a front line resource for anyone who teaches movement or coaches sports or works with the body in any healing art.

I bought this book as a study guide for an anatomy class that I'm taking for a yoga training. I am usually put off by more scientific books, and was worried I would be bored, so I got his book, designed I think for humanties types rather than science types. He has these crazy backgrounds to keep you interested I guess. The human body against the backdrop of ... a rhinoceros. So I really had fun with the crazy pictures. But the anatomy drawings are beautiful, They're very clear, and the style is intriguing to an artsy type like myself. I liked the way they make a copy of each illustration on the facing page to list out the different body parts. It made studying very very easy. If you need to learn anatomy and don't require an in-depth study, this book is a great little guide, and is very interesting even if you don't have to study anatomy.

The illustration of bone and muscle that this artist provided the world is still the best! The one thing that I appreciate the most is the correct proportions and clear definition. It is limited in the actual use for artists beyond pure illustration but is a keeper to go along with all of the material it seems to take to put a complete reference together. The reason for this is ACCURACY and CORRECT PROPORTION!

I am not a professional artist however I consider this book outstanding. It has 80 original Albinus copperplate engravings containing 230 or more ihdividual illustrations accompanied by line diagrams identifying the muscles and bones. It is very easy to use this book with only about 12 pages of the history of Bernard S Albinus. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning anatomy.

This book features some of the most proportionally accurate drawings of the human body ever made: herein lies its great strength. The artist will appreciate Albinus' attention to detail; the conneiseur will appreciate the accessible nature of the material--the book is simply fun to flip through. Certainly the best work of its kind, at an affordable price.

Very very good book. It could have been more exhaustive, because it's such a pleasure to see, look and learn by these means, that Mr. Hale could have persuaded Dover to double the size. Excellent.

This book is a wonderful visual aid to anyone who needs to see the particulars of bones, muscles and whatnot in the body. Whether it be an anatomy class or kinesiology this book is an excellent addition to add to your studies of the body.