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A MISCELLANY OF ANATOMICAL PLATES

01 Paracelsus, Aureolus Phillipus Theophrastus, Erster Theyl der Grossen Wundartzeney.. .Frankfurt 1563, and a book prodigiously illustrated with woodcuts. The illustration uses a mode of identification with references to a separate chart. The overall impression is one of an ungainly body and suppressed pain.
 
 
09 An Islamic manuscript, Anatomy of Mansur , Iran, 16th century, having been composed in 1396. It is written in Nasta'liq script and has six sections, each with an illustration -
Skeletal System - Nervous System - Muscular System - Venous System - Arterial System - and the Arterial System of a Pregnant Woman.  Catalogued and reproduced in Maggs Brothers Sale catalogue " The Art of Writing ", London undated (c1935) p.385.
 
06 BUFFERIN advert August 1955 12 x 15cms
 
03, 04 Two examples of illustration from anatomy books; left Spigelius, Opera quae extant omnia , Blaue, Amsterdam, 1645 done when the author was Professor of Anatomy at Padua, the plates deriving from Casserius' unpublished Theatrum anatomicum.


from a 1555 edition of Andreas Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, published by Johannes Oporinus in Basle.
 
two plates from Charles Estienne, La Dissection des parties du corps humain diusee en trois liures. .. de Colines, Paris, 1546. The woodcuts of figures are said to have been drawn by G.B.Rosso, from life (or rather death) in an Italian cemetery. Rosso makes the female figures particularly sensuous and yearning, even in their exposed condition.


from Pietro da Cortona's Tabulae Anatomicae .... published in Rome in 1741.


Claude Perrault, Memoirs for a Natural History of Animals , Streater, London 1688.


05 Philippe Etienne La Fosse, Cours Hippiatrique... Edme Paris 1772. The celebrated book dedicated to all aspects of the Horse. This is an inventive combination of objective drawing and the Scenic.

 

LIFE DEATH SKELETONS


Albinus (Bernhardus Siegfried) Tabulae Sceleti et Musculorum Corporis Humani, Verbeek at Leiden 1747, and the most celebrated of anatomic atlases, much beloved for its attempts to wed the unreal world of the anatomical specimen with the landscape perceived by us all - aggregating to an intensified surreal vision of a dream world - an umbrella encountering a sewing machine on an operating table. The twenty eight engraved plates are executed by Jan Wandelaar, here incorporating the famous rhino that was acquired by Amsterdam Zoo in 1741, the first of its kind in Europe.


  from Hans von Gersdorff's Feldbuch der Wundartzney , Strassbourg, 1540, and a diagrammatic representation of the human skeleton. Given the convention of line that directs the eye and the need to compress text - this is an interesting solution. There is a difficulty where the information between the legs begins to suffer from crowding. Note the uneasy suggestion of a platform upon which the skeleton stands, and the predominance of the diagrammatic.

Two plates from Pietro da Cortona's Tabulae Anatomicae .... published in Rome in 1741.
  

From William Chiselden, Osteographia or The Anatomy of the Bones , printed by William Bowyer in 1733.

02 Titlepage to Julius Casserius, De Vocis Auditusque Organis Historia Anatomica , Baldinus at Ferrara, 1600 - 1601. "A Masterpiece of Book Illustration and the most beautiful book ever published on the ear and throat..." The illustrations are in copperplate engraving and are thought to be by the German artist, Joseph Maurer. The titlepage is in many ways a contrast to the anatomical accuracy achieved within the book - a fantastic assemblage of little boney folk in the exact poses struck by posturing emblematic figures on a conventional seventeenth century titlepage.
 
 
  
04 Titlepage to Jan Swammerdam's Tractatus Physico-Anatomico-Medicus de Respiratione Usque Pulmonum , Leiden 1667. The association of the snails bearing down on the date is a marvellous conceit.

 

OF ANIMAL MOTION

Two plates from Giovanni Borelli, De Motu Animalium , Of Animal Motion; 1680, engraving of various stages of muscles expanding and contracting in human and animal forms.

 

BODY PARTS

01 from William Hervey's De Motu Cordis & sanguinis in animalibus, anatomica exercitatio, Leiden 1639.


02 from a German Medical Book, c1810 with handcoloured plates providing a populist guide to the body, physiognomy, and general pharmacy; each page measures 10 x 17cms.

ANDREAS VESALIUS, Figures and fragments

The World of Wonder 1932, the senses

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.....A GALLERY OF PUBLISHED PLATES

....EUGENE WOLFF, Anatomy for Artists 1962, selected plates
....FRAGMENTS , prosthetic arms, surgical equipment 1540 (Rossi?), a nasal operation, Bougery muscle patterns, Carswell TB and punctured intestine, Cruveilhier Pneumonia
...HAROLD MOE, The Art of Anatomical Illustration in the Renaissance and Baroque Periods, selection of plates
ARTISTS & ANATOMY biblio, , A.Hyatt Mayor

 

SINGLES

Gerard David, The Judgment of Cambyses 1498 Bruges (right hand)
Frederic Ruysch , Opera Omnia 1696 -1724 a tableau of body parts
Bufferin, the celebrated machine gut
Berengarius Carpensis, Isagogae Breves...1523
Rosselin, The Birthe of Mankinde, London 1604,
Bougerie and Jacob, Complete Anatomy... Paris 1832-1854
Johann Remelin, Kleiner Welt Spiegel 1661
GAUTIER D'AGOTY, a plate from Expositions Anatomiques 1759
Colonel Duhuisson, Artistic Anatomy of the Horse comparative anatomy, a man and a horse, 1895

 

SEE ALSO

F.H.Gerrish, A text-book of anatomy, London 1899
ZODIACAL MAN, THE BODY AS REPOSITORY
THE SKELETON'S PARADE
HASSELWANDER, ANATOMIC DANCE OF DEATH, MUNICH 1926
PHILIPS' ANATOMICAL MODEL C1910
POPULAR MANIKIN
William Cowper, Myatomia Reformata 1724

 

 

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