Michelangelo started dissecting cadavers at the age of 17!

Michelangelo, a world renowned artist emerging from the Renaissance has a lengthy list of famous works. However, you could argue that the work he did in the Sistine Chapel is the most recognized, as well as his work that is viewed the most often. It's a little known fact that when Michelangelo wasn't busy creating artistic masterpieces, he was fascinated by human anatomy and dissecting cadavers to see what the inside of a human looked like.

According to two researchers at John Hopkins University, Michelangelo let his passion for anatomy show in one of his paintings - despite the Catholic church looking down on human dissections. In Michenagelo's 'Separation of Light from Darkness' which is posed right above the main altar in the Sistine Chapel - an anatomically correct brain is drawn inside of God's neck.

Look at the picture and judge for yourself, but neurosurgeons and neuroatonomists around the world unanimously agreed that when they looked at the picture, they can see a perfectly drawn brain stem.

(Source)