“ [in the 19^th century] dissection became the prerogative of the emotionally-distanced professional, out of public sight, and the exclusive province of the technician of the human body who learnt and practised in the climate of certified knowledge – apparently beyond serious public question until comparatively recently. As new questions have arisen about the role of medical knowledge in the service of modern surgical intervention, and the role of the patient as passive subject, so the question of the fraught relationship between our bodies and those who work on them is undergoing re-assessment, not least in the context of feminism” (Martin Kemp and Marina Wallace Spectacular Bodies: the Art and Science of the Human Body from Leonardo da Vinci to Now. p.31)

Image: Rembrandt: The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp (1632)