Anatomy, muscles of the human body (plate IX) – Jan Wandelaar after Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, 1747

ANATOMY AS ART: THE MUSCLES OF THE HUMAN BODY ACCORDING TO ALBINUS

“Musculorum Tabula IX” Copperplate engraving made between 1739–1743 by Jan Wandelaar for the celebrated work “Tabulae Sceleti et Musculorum Corporis Humani” by Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, published in 1747 in Leiden by Johan and Herman Verbeek. Size: 62 x 47.5 cm.

“In this plate, the first layer or order of muscles is depicted, after the general skin coverings and the tendon sheaths have been removed. Additionally, several associated ligaments are shown, as well as parts of the third skeleton, which forms the basis of this figure, and also parts of other body structures, namely the nose, the ear, and the genitals, insofar as these are not covered by muscles.”

“Tabulae Sceleti et Musculorum Corporis Humani” was arguably the most important illustrated anatomical work of the eighteenth century. Anatomist Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697–1770), who was a professor at Leiden University, and engraver Jan Wandelaar (1690–1759) collaborated closely to create engravings that were both scientifically accurate and visually exceptional.

To improve the scientific accuracy of anatomical illustrations, Albinus and Wandelaar developed a new technique in which a kind of grid was placed at a fixed distance from the anatomical subject, through which the draughtsman studied the object. The grid then served as a guide for the final drawing, which was built up square by square.

Albinus believed in the concept of the “homo perfectus“, an idealised perfect human model of which all people were derivatives and variants. To depict this perfect human, the illustrations were composed from multiple human models. Earlier anatomical representations, such as those in the work of Andreas Vesalius, were typically based on individual bodies; Albinus, by contrast, strove for a composite, idealised human model.

The anatomical figures were placed in a lush Baroque setting, creating a sense of depth and making the representations particularly beautiful and vivid. Wandelaar made the first plates in 1742, among them skeletons depicted alongside a rhinoceros — the famous Indian rhinoceros Clara, who was residing in Leiden at the time and was enormously popular.

Albinus believed so strongly in his work that he reportedly spent 24,000 florins — approximately €1.9 million in today’s money — to have it produced. His investment yielded plates without equal, widely regarded as among the finest engravings ever made. Before Jan Wandelaar met Bernhard Albinus, he was already a skilled artist in the field of natural history. He studied under Dutch printmaker Jacob Folkema, Dutch engraver and cartographer Willem van der Gouwen, painter Gerard de Lairesse, and botanist and anatomist Frederik Ruysch. From 1746 until his death, Wandelaar lived in Albinus’s house.

Price: Euro 950,-