A torso, dissected to reveal the liver, stomach and intestines. Photolithograph, 1940, after a woodcut, 1543, after A. Vesalius.

Date:: 1940

Reference:: 24498i

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Credit

A torso, dissected to reveal the liver, stomach and intestines. Photolithograph, 1940, after a woodcut, 1543, after A. Vesalius. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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About this work

Description

One of series of similar woodcut illustrations in the fifth book of De humani corporis fabrica libri septem in which classical torsi are used as settings to display the anatomy of the abdomen. This is an allusion to classical antiquity that plays on the conceit of dissected stone. Vesalius notes that in preparation for the drawing of this particular image, the ribs were broken and retracted for a less restricted view. The broken ends of these ribs are visible in the woodcut

Publication/Creation

Bern : Dr A. Wander, 1940.

Physical description

1 print : photolithograph

Contributors

Vesalius, Andreas, 1514-1564.

Lettering

Sexta quinti libri figura.

References note

J. B. de C. M. Saunders and C. D. O'Malley, The illustrations from the works of Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, Cleveland and New York, 1950, pp. 160-161, pl. 55:1

H. Cushing, A bio-bibliography of Andreas Vesalius, 2nd ed., Hamden, Conn. and London, 1962, pp. 75-88, no. VI.A.-1

G. Harcourt, "Andreas Vesalius and the Anatomy of Antique Sculpture," Representations, no. 17, 1987, pp. 28-61

Reference

Wellcome Collection 24498i

Reproduction note

The original: is the sixth woodcut illustration to the fifth book of the De humani corporis fabrica libri septem of Andreas Vesalius (p. 360), published in Basel in 1543

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