“A painting is finished when the artist says it is finished…”
Rembrandt Van Rijn
This is the Rembrandt painting “The anatomy lesson of Dr Tulp”. Every 5 years or so in the 17th Century, the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons would have a special lecture and autopsy demonstration. It was documented with a painting. This is the most famous.of those lectures Rembrandt is legendary. Dr Tulp was a prominent Amsterdam GP of his time. His appearance in this image is unexpected, as he was not a surgeon, but was wealthy enough to commission the artist. The cadaver is Andriaan Adriaanszoon. He was painted on the day of his execution 1632. His crime was the theft of a coat. That sad simple act has delivered him into the path of Rembrandt and the highest echelons of art history. The image is not accurate, some two or three hundred members of the public paid to be at this public dissection. Likewise the rapidly decomposing abdomen would have be opened first. The arm is also weird, is the extensor or flexor compartment? #classicmedicalimage #letsmakelemonade
Pen Paint and Scalpel 