Tag Archives: The Anatomy Lesson

The body vanished: Sebald’s view of dissection in Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp

January 22, 2017

Jennifer Xu Gran Rapids, Michigan, United States   In the opening chapter of W.G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn, we encounter a large painting of a body being cut open: Rembrandt van Rijn’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, completed in 1632.1 Every January, Dr. Tulp gave anatomy lessons to the Amsterdam Guild of […]

Surgeon’s hands in Vesalius’s portraits and Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp

January 19, 2017

Adéla Janíčková Prague, Czech Republic   Fig 1: Anon, Frontispiece, 1543. From Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, 1543 “To extol the human hand as a monument to God’s wisdom, an instrument that permits humans to create civilization” This statement by Dolores Mitchell1 describes the human hand as both a monument to divinity and […]