Healthy Human Embryos
Lianne McTavish
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Abstract
“Embryos in the Early Modern and Modern Periods: A Visual Dialogue,” The Healthy Embryo, ed. Jeff Nisker et. al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 97-115.
Key takeaways
- I begin by juxtaposing a typical image of an unborn human figure from the early modern period with a representation of the human embryo that circulates today.
- Along similar lines, my written comparison of an early modern engraving and a modern image of the human embryo addresses the kind of looking that each representation entails, while encouraging readers to see the representations in new ways.
- Peu's engraving of endangered unborn figures would seem to have little in common with the modern photograph of an early 'at-risk' human embryo in the process of having one cell removed for PGD testing (Fig. 8.2).
- The realism of the modern photograph of an early human embryo discussed above operates differently.
- My first question asked whether an early modern engraving of unborn figures and a modern microscopic visualization of a human embryo could speak to each other.
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