0:00:09 > 0:00:11We are our bodies.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15We see the outside all the time
0:00:15 > 0:00:20but that's less than half the story - the surface, the exterior.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23We know far less about what's inside.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29Heaven forbid that we should actually see our insides.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31Most people go through their life
0:00:31 > 0:00:32without getting a look at their organs
0:00:32 > 0:00:34and for good reason.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36My lungs and kidneys and heart
0:00:36 > 0:00:41and bones and muscles, arteries and veins, they do their jobs unseen.
0:00:41 > 0:00:46But for anatomists, the doctors and artists who have struggled
0:00:46 > 0:00:49for centuries to understand how our bodies actually work,
0:00:49 > 0:00:53getting inside - dissection - was vital.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59In this five-part series,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02I've been investigating the beautiful synthesis between discoveries
0:01:02 > 0:01:05in anatomy and the works of art that illustrate them.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12As a scientist myself and someone who is fascinated by anatomical drawing
0:01:12 > 0:01:18I want to find out exactly how anatomy has inspired art, and art, anatomy.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25One of the most extraordinary anatomical artworks ever made
0:01:25 > 0:01:29was produced in London in the 18th century.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus
0:01:31 > 0:01:38was an epic atlas that laid out in meticulous detail all of the stages of pregnancy.
0:01:38 > 0:01:43It united two brilliant but controversial Scottish brothers
0:01:43 > 0:01:45who transformed both medicine and art,
0:01:45 > 0:01:49but by the end of their lives, it had also driven them apart.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus was
0:01:53 > 0:01:55the work of two of the leading
0:01:55 > 0:01:58anatomists of the 18th century, William and John Hunter,
0:01:58 > 0:02:02two brothers who lived and worked here in Covent Garden.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05It is a jewel from a period when art and anatomy were
0:02:05 > 0:02:07becoming ever more closely interwoven,
0:02:07 > 0:02:12and when anatomy was transforming the principals of surgery.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16So how did these two brothers construct such an exquisite masterpiece?
0:02:16 > 0:02:20And what does it tell us about art and anatomy from Georgian Britain?
0:02:20 > 0:02:22And where on earth did they get all those corpses from?
0:02:33 > 0:02:39In the winter of 1750, the anatomist midwife and lecturer William Hunter
0:02:39 > 0:02:42was about to oversee the most important dissection of his career.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49The body lying on William Hunter's dissecting table that winter's day
0:02:49 > 0:02:52was that of a woman in the final stages of pregnancy.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57Who she was, or where she came from remains shrouded in mystery.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59All we know is that she had died suddenly,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02but with the fully formed baby still inside her womb.
0:03:05 > 0:03:10The process that followed would be repeated many times on a series of pregnant women.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14The body was cut open by William's younger brother John Hunter,
0:03:14 > 0:03:18the most skilled dissector and innovative surgeon of the age.
0:03:19 > 0:03:26And each stage in the process was captured in vivid red chalk by a Dutch artist called Jan Van Rymsdyk.
0:03:29 > 0:03:3325 years after that first dissection, William pulled all
0:03:33 > 0:03:36of these findings together and published his great book.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45Now this is an original edition of William Hunter's
0:03:45 > 0:03:51The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus, published in 1774.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53The first thing you notice about it is its size -
0:03:53 > 0:03:56it's absolutely massive.
0:03:56 > 0:03:57Absurdly large, in fact.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59But this was important to Hunter,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02he wanted as many of the illustrations as possible to
0:04:02 > 0:04:06be life-size - only that way, he believed,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10could the detail of all the parts be accurately represented,
0:04:10 > 0:04:14and for Hunter the goal was absolute accuracy.
0:04:23 > 0:04:28Well, when you see this for the first time, there's no doubt that it is slightly shocking.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32The baby in the middle is beautiful,
0:04:32 > 0:04:34like a sleeping child waiting to born,
0:04:34 > 0:04:39but as you pan out, you see that the mother has been anatomised,
0:04:39 > 0:04:40she's been dissected,
0:04:40 > 0:04:45and entirely dehumanised into a sort of butchered piece of meat.
0:04:45 > 0:04:51So there is this staggering contrast between the humanity of the baby, this perfect organism,
0:04:51 > 0:04:53and the fully dehumanised mother.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00I find this image very powerful and very moving,
0:05:00 > 0:05:02but it's also incredibly accurate.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07The previous depictions of the baby "in utero", in the womb,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10they often show a lot of space between the baby
0:05:10 > 0:05:11and the walls of the womb,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14whereas you can see here that it is crammed
0:05:14 > 0:05:16into this incredibly tiny space,
0:05:16 > 0:05:19it shows the intimacy between the baby and the mother.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31All of these illustrations are of an extremely high quality
0:05:31 > 0:05:34and the use of shadow and light creates attention to detail,
0:05:34 > 0:05:37creates an incredible three-dimensional effect.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41There are so many textures here, whether it is in the skin, or the umbilical cord
0:05:41 > 0:05:44or even in the locks of the baby's hair.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49It was an epic undertaking.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53In all, there are 34 plates with 70 illustrations examining
0:05:53 > 0:05:56the process of pregnancy.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59It reflects a time when a new breed of male midwives,
0:05:59 > 0:06:01or obstetricians as they are now known,
0:06:01 > 0:06:05were first starting to apply science to pregnancy.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07This wasn't the only book of its kind,
0:06:07 > 0:06:09but it was the most impressive.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13Simon, I really want to ask you what makes this stand out
0:06:13 > 0:06:16from the other texts of the time, but the first thing that
0:06:16 > 0:06:18stands out is its sheer size!
0:06:18 > 0:06:21It's almost comically large.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23Yeah, it's not a handy book.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26It's designed to be big, it's designed to be impressive.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28It's a piece of willy waving by William Hunter,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31the greatest anatomist and man midwife of his period,
0:06:31 > 0:06:34at least in his eyes, and this is his statement of intent -
0:06:34 > 0:06:36he's showing off with this book.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38As well as being this grand production, there is
0:06:38 > 0:06:41a bit of new science in the book, there is
0:06:41 > 0:06:44a thing that William Hunter is famous for having discovered
0:06:44 > 0:06:47and that's the circulation in the placenta.
0:06:47 > 0:06:52These are different views that allows you to see where vessels connect,
0:06:52 > 0:06:54or in this case, don't connect.
0:06:54 > 0:06:56What he is trying to show is that although
0:06:56 > 0:07:02they come into very close contact, the mother's blood and the baby's blood don't actually mingle together.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07- And Hunter was the first person to note that, was he?- So he says.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09By dissecting pregnant women,
0:07:09 > 0:07:13showing the structure of the gravid uterus, the pregnant uterus
0:07:13 > 0:07:18and the placenta, William Hunter is really saying that these are objects of medical attention.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22Up until the middle of the 18th century, midwifery has been largely
0:07:22 > 0:07:28work done by female midwives and not seen as a medical event in that sense
0:07:28 > 0:07:31and certainly not as something worthy of this kind of detailed
0:07:31 > 0:07:32anatomical study.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39William was able to produce a work of this unprecedented level of detail
0:07:39 > 0:07:43because of the changes taking place in anatomy in 18th-century London.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46As well as revealing the internal structure of the body,
0:07:46 > 0:07:52anatomy was now being used to inform and improve surgery.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Private anatomy schools were being established,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58including one run by William, which for many years,
0:07:58 > 0:08:02was based here at Number One Great Piazza in Covent Garden.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06Here, his brother John tirelessly dissected bodies, while William
0:08:06 > 0:08:10delivered ground-breaking lectures that offered something new.
0:08:12 > 0:08:13In October 1746,
0:08:13 > 0:08:18William Hunter placed an advert for his first anatomy course in London.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21"Gentlemen shall have the opportunity to learn the art of dissection
0:08:21 > 0:08:26"for the whole winter season in the same manner as in Paris."
0:08:26 > 0:08:28Now that French style was the key.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32In Paris, students learned, not just by watching, but by doing.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34And that was what Hunter wanted to copy.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37He wanted his students to perform the dissections themselves and
0:08:37 > 0:08:41acquire the knowledge of anatomy based on their own experiences.
0:08:43 > 0:08:44But there was a problem.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47For students to do their own dissections,
0:08:47 > 0:08:51the school needed an unprecedented number of dead bodies.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56William's brother John later recalled that in 12 years
0:08:56 > 0:09:01at the school, he attended the dissection of over 2,000 corpses.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05But the methods used to obtain them were notoriously unsavoury.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10John came down to London when he was 20 years old
0:09:10 > 0:09:13and joined William in the Covent Garden school.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16So essentially he came down as an assistant to William,
0:09:16 > 0:09:20but he was also there to learn the trade of anatomy, to learn the craft.
0:09:22 > 0:09:28There was no legal supply of bodies for private anatomy schools like William's.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32John started to make connections with men who would willingly go and dig up
0:09:32 > 0:09:37bodies for a payment, and gradually that became a kind of profession.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42So, really, it was William and John who kick-started that whole industry in body snatching.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48These body snatchers were known at the time as Resurrection men.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54The Resurrection men worked throughout the winter anatomy season,
0:09:54 > 0:09:57greeting the palms of grave-diggers and night-watchmen
0:09:57 > 0:09:59and creeping into cemeteries in the dead of night to filch
0:09:59 > 0:10:02the bodies of the recently departed.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05They became so skilled at their nefarious trade,
0:10:05 > 0:10:11that a freshly dead body could be exhumed from a shallow grave in just a quarter of an hour.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16A really good team could spirit away up to ten bodies in a single night.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25The authorities largely turned a blind eye to the shadowy trade
0:10:25 > 0:10:29as well-trained surgeons were in high demand.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32But an outraged public knew exactly who was driving it.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37Here is a cartoon from 1773 entitled,
0:10:37 > 0:10:39The Anatomist Overtaken By The Watch.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43The night-watchman has disturbed a grave robbery in progress.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45So the anatomist is detected as fleeing the scene.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48He has dropped some papers behind him on which the words,
0:10:48 > 0:10:50"Hunter's lectures" are clearly visible.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55It's likely that the bodies of the pregnant women
0:10:55 > 0:10:59dissected for The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus were
0:10:59 > 0:11:01obtained through these shady networks.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05And once in his possession, William had to act swiftly to
0:11:05 > 0:11:10record his findings with as much accuracy and detail as possible.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18Fortunately, the man he turned to was ideally suited to the task.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31These are the original chalk drawings by Jan van Rymsdyk
0:11:31 > 0:11:36made for William Hunter's The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39They are extremely beautiful.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42This one has a sort of ironic beauty to it.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44The baby looks so peaceful and lifelike.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47The irony being, of course, that this is a dissection.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52Van Rymsdyk created over 60 illustrations
0:11:52 > 0:11:56for William's atlas over a 22-year period.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59In each one, he skilfully manipulated his red chalk to
0:11:59 > 0:12:03produce a range of surface textures, but what really
0:12:03 > 0:12:08leaps off the page is his astonishing dedication to accuracy.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13Here's a terrific example of that detail.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16On the membrane covering the foetus's head,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19Van Rymsdyk has drawn the reflection of the 12-paned window,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22possibly the skylight from William Hunter's dissection room.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26Now of course it has no anatomical relevance whatsoever,
0:12:26 > 0:12:30but it is part of Hunter's insistence on giving
0:12:30 > 0:12:35the impression of realism, that you are actually in the room with him.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38It's an example of what he referred to as the mark of truth.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45This realism set these drawings apart from anatomical
0:12:45 > 0:12:47illustrations of the past.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51Anatomists like Vesalius, back in the 16th century,
0:12:51 > 0:12:55had amalgamated all the available knowledge to create idealised
0:12:55 > 0:12:58images that were true because they were perfect.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04William Hunter was in pursuit of a different kind of truth.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07He believed his artists should show the specimen
0:13:07 > 0:13:10in front of them with all of their flaws and imperfections,
0:13:10 > 0:13:14and that was something that Van Rymsdyk did brilliantly.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18Peter, tell us about the artist.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22- What do we know about Van Rymsdyk? - Not a great deal.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24I don't think we know a date of birth,
0:13:24 > 0:13:26I don't think we know with whom he studied.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28He tried to make a name as an artist.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31He went off to Bath at one point which was a place where
0:13:31 > 0:13:34society went and there were opportunities for portrait painters.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37He put advertisements in the local paper saying that he would
0:13:37 > 0:13:39produce portraits.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42Those that survive show that he was much better as an anatomical
0:13:42 > 0:13:45draughtsman than as a painter.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48He has this amazing self-effacing style
0:13:48 > 0:13:54and my interpretation is that this requirement from the anatomist,
0:13:54 > 0:14:00Hunter, to present the material in this very plain, scientifically-accurate way,
0:14:00 > 0:14:03affected his mental balance somewhat.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05One of the things that we know about him
0:14:05 > 0:14:09is that he developed a real resentment towards William Hunter.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14My interpretation is that Rymsdyk was an unlucky and unhappy person.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22He seems to have blamed Hunter for the fact that he was
0:14:22 > 0:14:26best known as an anatomical draughtsman and not as a painter.
0:14:28 > 0:14:33But the biggest blow was struck when The Gravid Uterus was published.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36In the preface, William thanked his brother John and the engraver
0:14:36 > 0:14:40Robert Strange, but Rymsdyk's name was not mentioned.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45Rymsdyk never forgave Hunter.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49But this realistic and scientific way of seeing a body was
0:14:49 > 0:14:52having a big impact on both anatomy and art.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01Anatomical teaching was increasingly focused on surgical detail.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04William's collections at Glasgow University show just how
0:15:04 > 0:15:07good he and his brother were at harnessing
0:15:07 > 0:15:11the power of the visual to communicate anatomical truth.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21As well as giving his students a cadaver,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24or a whole body to work on, William Hunter also handed out
0:15:24 > 0:15:28preserved specimens to illustrate aspects of anatomy that were
0:15:28 > 0:15:30not commonly seen, and what is clever
0:15:30 > 0:15:36about that is that they provided a snapshot, a moment of a dissection
0:15:36 > 0:15:40or a specific body part that could be used over and over again.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46These preparations of tissues, organs and bones,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49were designed to be eye-catching and memorable.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52It is impossible to tell now which were made by William
0:15:52 > 0:15:56and which by John, but all of them display incredible levels of skill.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02I think they were exceptional.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06If you did one of these today, it would be really high rated.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09But I think they are even more exceptional when you look at any
0:16:09 > 0:16:12of these and put it in context of this is mid-1700s.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14So there was no embalming.
0:16:14 > 0:16:19They had to work quickly, typically in winter, typically by candlelight.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21Now this one is particularly interesting.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25I don't really know what it is but it is...breathtakingly detailed.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27- What is that? - It is a bit of intestine.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30It is one of my favourite things in the museum.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33When you try and rationalise how they were able to do this,
0:16:33 > 0:16:34it's mind-boggling.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36What we do understand is that they probably did
0:16:36 > 0:16:39a mixture of things like painting something,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42like lacquer on the outside to make it tight and a bit tougher.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45And then immersing it in turpentine to make it a little bit more transparent.
0:16:45 > 0:16:50And the level of skill to do that perfectly over this entire coil is astonishing.
0:16:50 > 0:16:56And several of these are kind of glinting with what looks like metal.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59Well, this shiny silver that you are seeing in a lot of these
0:16:59 > 0:17:02specimens is mercury that has been injected very, very gently,
0:17:02 > 0:17:04and this was very trendy at the time.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08It was a fantastic way of looking at very small blood vessels and very
0:17:08 > 0:17:12small lymphatic vessels and tracing their pathway all the way through.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15And the Hunter brothers were exceptional at it.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17But when we try and replicate these things, it is
0:17:17 > 0:17:22just a level of commitment that is difficult to reproduce.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28These preparations are ideal for teaching the minute aspects of anatomy.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32But when it came to communicating his findings on pregnancy,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35William and employed a more unusual technique.
0:17:35 > 0:17:36With the help of artists,
0:17:36 > 0:17:40he made remarkable plaster casts of the dissected women and had them
0:17:40 > 0:17:44painted in lifelike colours so that they carried the mark of truth.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50They were really one of his most ultimate teaching tools and they
0:17:50 > 0:17:53are graphic, they are challenging, but extremely educational.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56I can see that these could be useful as teaching tools
0:17:56 > 0:17:59because in the sequence, this baby is actually breach,
0:17:59 > 0:18:02is actually head up when it should be pointing downwards.
0:18:02 > 0:18:07I think that the understanding of that, the position of the child, was a big step forward.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10And making that popular and well-known, not just medically
0:18:10 > 0:18:13but into the broader community, was a really big advantage.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19There was a lot of skill and a lot of talent going in to making these.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22So the team that contributed to it did a wonderful job,
0:18:22 > 0:18:26and centuries later we are still a little bit shocked by them and a little bit in awe about them.
0:18:29 > 0:18:35Through the work of William Hunter, art and anatomy were becoming more closely linked than ever before.
0:18:35 > 0:18:40But it wasn't merely through artists aiding anatomical teaching.
0:18:40 > 0:18:46William was also instrumental in making anatomical truth central to British art.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53This is William Hunter's formidable art collection
0:18:53 > 0:18:57and it really reflects his twin passions which were art and anatomy.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03William's successful midwifery practice, which served
0:19:03 > 0:19:07the highest levels of society, had made him a rich man
0:19:07 > 0:19:13and he invested heavily in art which now resides in Glasgow's Hunterian Art Gallery.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16The collection includes portraits by masters such as Rubens
0:19:16 > 0:19:20and this wonderful painting of Christ's entombment by Rembrandt.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23It also contains work by Hunter's contemporaries,
0:19:23 > 0:19:26such as the British artist William Hogarth.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30This is a plate from Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33It is a sort of summary of his attitudes towards art at the time.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36And what is really interesting about it, for me,
0:19:36 > 0:19:38is the amount of anatomy on display here.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41So this is a sculptor's yard in Hyde Park Corner where
0:19:41 > 0:19:44they were churning out reproductions of classical sculptures,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48including the Belvedere Torso, which at the time was considered
0:19:48 > 0:19:52one of the greatest expressions of anatomy in sculpture.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56Now, like many British artists at the time, Hogarth believed that
0:19:56 > 0:20:00if he and his contemporaries were to match the scale of the ancients,
0:20:00 > 0:20:04then they had to have a really precise knowledge of anatomy.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17So strong was this belief that it became one of the guiding
0:20:17 > 0:20:20principles in London's newest arts institution.
0:20:20 > 0:20:27In 1768, the Royal Academy of Arts was founded by the leading artists and architects of the day.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30Under the leadership of the renowned painter Joshua Reynolds, it aimed
0:20:30 > 0:20:36to promote the arts of design and steer British art into the future.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44This is an engraving of a painting by Johan Zoffany
0:20:44 > 0:20:48and it shows the founder members of the Royal Academy,
0:20:48 > 0:20:51well, it shows the male founder members at least.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53The two female founders are only here as portraits
0:20:53 > 0:20:56because they were not allowed in the artist's studio,
0:20:56 > 0:21:00mostly due to the presence of this guy, a nude male model.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03Now this guy with the ear trumpet, that is the president,
0:21:03 > 0:21:04Joshua Reynolds.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07And right next to him, at the very centre of this picture,
0:21:07 > 0:21:11is the only founder member who wasn't an artist.
0:21:11 > 0:21:12It is William Hunter.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15He was the Royal Academy's first professor of anatomy.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21There is no greater sign of the importance being awarded to
0:21:21 > 0:21:24anatomy in British art at this time.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28In his role, William was required to deliver lectures on the skeleton
0:21:28 > 0:21:32and the muscles, and once again he used innovative teaching tools.
0:21:36 > 0:21:42Evidence of his methods survive at the magnificent Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48In the early 1750s,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51the Hunter brothers acquired a corpse from the gallows.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54They skinned it and made a full-size cast of the body
0:21:54 > 0:21:58which William used in his art classes.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02This exquisite model is a wax replica of that full-size body.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11Later on, William had bronze copies made of this model
0:22:11 > 0:22:14so that artists could buy their own handy versions.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18They soon became regarded as an essential part of every
0:22:18 > 0:22:20artist's toolkit.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27There weren't many British painters before the advent
0:22:27 > 0:22:31of the Royal Academy who did any more than paint portraits.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35A sea change is the development of historical pictures with
0:22:35 > 0:22:37full-length figures.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41You see it in the history paintings of, to name a prime example,
0:22:41 > 0:22:45the young American painter Benjamin West who came as a very young
0:22:45 > 0:22:49man to England, was a student at the Royal Academy, and he produced a
0:22:49 > 0:22:52series of sometimes nude figures,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55and he demonstrates in those figures a knowledge of anatomy
0:22:55 > 0:22:57that you would find in classic Old Master paintings,
0:22:57 > 0:23:00if you looked back to Rubens and other painters in the previous century.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03West was showing that he could do the same.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07Anatomy, which had always brought men of science
0:23:07 > 0:23:09and men of art together,
0:23:09 > 0:23:14was being seized upon by artists in Britain with a fresh zeal,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17but at the same time, it was also helping to revolutionise
0:23:17 > 0:23:21science through the work of William's brother, John.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26In 1760, after 12 years with William, John moved on to
0:23:26 > 0:23:28pursue a career in surgery.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31While William continued as a midwife and teacher,
0:23:31 > 0:23:35John pioneered new treatments for aneurysms, gunshot wounds
0:23:35 > 0:23:38and conducted a range of medical experiments.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41Driving all of this was his radical new approach.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48I think what John Hunter did that was significantly different was to
0:23:48 > 0:23:53move anatomy from being the gross structure of the human body,
0:23:53 > 0:23:57or the identification of small parts of the normal human body,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01into understanding the body as a living thing,
0:24:01 > 0:24:04both a healthy living thing but also the body in disease.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08And what really cared about was helping to make people better,
0:24:08 > 0:24:10so it wasn't just taking things apart,
0:24:10 > 0:24:13it was understanding what made things live, how to cure them.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19I think John Hunter was always alive to the idea that you can learn from
0:24:19 > 0:24:23the extremes, so he was interested in all kinds of deformities.
0:24:23 > 0:24:25Amongst the specimens in the John Hunter collection
0:24:25 > 0:24:29are the skeleton of Charles Byrne, known as the Irish giant.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33He was about 7'7" seven tall, so pretty tall by today's standards,
0:24:33 > 0:24:35let alone by the standards of the 18th century.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40And when he died, John Hunter was interested in dissecting his body.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43And for him that was all part of this unravelling of the mysteries
0:24:43 > 0:24:46of the human body, what happened to it when things went wrong.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52What John was seeking was the truth in all of life.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55And this took him towards ideas which conflicted with
0:24:55 > 0:24:58those of his brother and which at the time bordered on heresy.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06John Hunter is a radical thinker.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10He is somebody who believes that the world could function without
0:25:10 > 0:25:13there necessarily being a Creator.
0:25:13 > 0:25:18He argued, in private on the basis of fossils, that the Earth was
0:25:18 > 0:25:22many hundreds of thousands of years old, many millions of years old.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26And once you open up that amount of time,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29you open up the possibility for evolution.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36John's views on the origins of life were very
0:25:36 > 0:25:37different from those of his brother.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41For William, the pursuit of anatomical truth was
0:25:41 > 0:25:44affirmation of the existence of God.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46And just like many contemporaries,
0:25:46 > 0:25:50he believed that the wonders revealed in The Anatomy of the Gravid Uterus
0:25:50 > 0:25:53were testament to the perfection of the Creator
0:25:53 > 0:25:56and his unrivalled capacity for design.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03The Hunter brothers had always differed.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07But in the years following the publication of The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus,
0:26:07 > 0:26:09their relationship fell apart.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14Initially, John and William had a very good relationship,
0:26:14 > 0:26:16there was a great deal of loyalty there.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20But as soon as John really started to outshine his teacher
0:26:20 > 0:26:25and assert his own independence, that's when the trouble started.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27And it is quite likely that their first arguments
0:26:27 > 0:26:32happened because of William's insistence that any dissection
0:26:32 > 0:26:35work that was done, essentially belonged to him.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40At least half of the images in The Gravid Uterus were
0:26:40 > 0:26:46almost certainly drawn from bodies that were dissected by John Hunter.
0:26:46 > 0:26:5116 out of the 34 plates were produced in the Covent Garden school,
0:26:51 > 0:26:54and William did virtually no dissection at that period.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58So certainly nearly half of the work was John's actual handiwork.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06In 1780, John and William publicly fell out over who was truly
0:27:06 > 0:27:09responsible for the revelations published within The Gravid Uterus
0:27:09 > 0:27:12and they never really repaired their relationship,
0:27:12 > 0:27:15despite the fact that John treated William on his deathbed.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18Now in 1783, William died,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22but John had been completely cut out of his will.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26William left his entire collection of specimens, the arts,
0:27:26 > 0:27:29the whole lot, here, to Glasgow University.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35Today, two separate Hunterian Museums
0:27:35 > 0:27:38testify to this split between the brothers.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44William's collections in Glasgow reveal a respected teacher,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47an acknowledged gentleman of wealth and consequence,
0:27:47 > 0:27:52and a man whose passion for anatomy was matched only by his passion for art.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59In London, John's museum testifies to one man's obsession with
0:27:59 > 0:28:04science and nature and his tireless quest to understand all of life.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11But the Hunter brothers have also left behind a legacy that
0:28:11 > 0:28:14reaches beyond the walls of their respective museums.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20Despite their differences, the Hunter brothers, William and John,
0:28:20 > 0:28:23both had an ardent zeal for the pursuit of truth.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27They put anatomical accuracy at the heart of both medicine and art,
0:28:27 > 0:28:33and they promoted a scientific approach to surgery that has inspired practitioners ever since.
0:28:33 > 0:28:38And all of this is encapsulated in the luxuriant splendour,
0:28:38 > 0:28:42the stark scientific accuracy and the exquisite art that is
0:28:42 > 0:28:46William Hunter's The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus.