Gunther von Hagens: The Showman Who Made Damien Hirst Look Tame

Gunther von Hagens, the German scientist who invented plastination, turned preserved human corpses into a global spectacle with his Body Worlds exhibitions. Starting in the late 1990s, he displayed real dissected bodies as purportedly educational art objects, drawing millions of visitors worldwide. In 2002, he staged a live, televised autopsy in London, reviving historical gory spectacles. Critics argue that unlike artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, or Rembrandt, who used dissection to explore mortality and beauty, von Hagens treated human flesh as cheap material, sidestepping moral questions. His work has been compared to Andrea Vesalius's 1543 Fabrica and the wax anatomies at Florence's La Specola, but lacks the emotional depth of artistic precedents like the Capuchin crypt in Rome or Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson. Von Hagens had a long association with Heidelberg University. The article concludes that he was no artist, but a showman who exploited the frontier of art and science.