The vanities of Dr. Ruysch.

Second of 3-part series on Baroque anatomy, mainly in France and Italy, in its relations to medicine, religion and the fine arts, c.1600 - c.1800. This part deals mainly with the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons and the series of paintings commissioned to celebrate the prosperity and social standing of the Guild's masters during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. There is particular reference to Rembrandt's 'Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp', the life and work of Dr. Frederick Ruysch (1638-1731) and his pre-eminent collection of morbid anatomical specimens, bought by Tsar Peter the Great and shipped from Amsterdam to St. Petersburg in 1717.