The Anatomical Lesson of Professor Pauw
Medium
Engraving on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 28.5 × 22.1 cm (11 1/4 × 8 3/4 in.); Sheet: 30.5 × 22.1 cm (12 1/16 × 8 3/4 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
51094
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Lucas Kilian’s Mirrors of the Microcosm (see 1944.461, .462, and .521) were very likely used for reference in the Leiden University anatomy theater, as a set of the 1613 broadsides entered the collection in 1618. The theater already had a tradition of teaching from prints during dissections. In 1598, its founder, Professor Pieter Pauw, had forty prints after Vesalius framed and pasted onto a board for the walls of the theater. The flap broadsides were likely used in a similar didactic manner. Pa...
About the Artist
Jacques de Gheyn, II · 1565–1629
Jacques de Gheyn II (1565–1629) was born in Antwerp into an artistic family, receiving his earliest instruction from his father, Jacob de Gheyn I, a skilled glass painter, engraver, and draftsman. In 1585, the young de Gheyn moved to Haarlem, where he spent five formative years studying under Hendrik Goltzius, one of the most celebrated engravers of the Northern Renaissance. This apprenticeship pr...