A sculpture masterpiece for the teaching of anatomy

BACKGROUND AND AIM The study of anatomy remains the backbone of medical education in the first years. There is a constant need for educational materials that enable the assimilation of knowledge by students. The casts after human bodies have not lost the value, even in the era of virtual education. We present in this paper a museal item destined to improve the anatomy teaching. METHODS Given the existence in the department of anatomy from Cluj -Napoca of an item of exceptional artistic and scientific value, we intensively searched Pubmed and Scopus, as well as by manual search of printed only documents, for all papers related to the muscle man by Brancusi created for educational purposes of anatomy students. RESULTS This paper presents summary data from the biography of the creators of this item, the world famous sculptor Constantin Brancusi and the professor of anatomy and surgery from Bucharest Dimitrie Gerota. We also describe this item and the conditions which generated it. CONCLUSION Teaching anatomy relies on the quality of the didactic support. The muscle man by Brancusi is a very realistic reproduction of a man, very useful for anatomical training and teaching.