The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp

Rembrandt, 1632

Oil on canvas

216 × 170 cm

Mauritshuis, The Hague

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is a 1632 oil painting by Rembrandt housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (2536x1902, 440 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Mauritshuis Autopsy Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp Wikipedia:Recent additions 42 Rembrandt Nicolaes Tulp Talk:Anatomy Lesson... Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. ... See also: 1632 (novel) Events February 22 - Galileos Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published July 23 - 300 colonists for New France depart Dieppe November 8 - Wladyslaw IV Waza elected king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after Zygmunt III Waza death November 16 - Battle of Lützen... Mona Lisa, Oil on wood panel painting by Leonardo da Vinci. ... Mauritshuis The Mauritshuis is a museum in The Hague, the Netherlands. ... Coordinates: , Country Netherlands Province South Holland Area (2006)  - Municipality 98. ... See also: 1632 (novel) Events February 22 - Galileos Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published July 23 - 300 colonists for New France depart Dieppe November 8 - Wladyslaw IV Waza elected king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after Zygmunt III Waza death November 16 - Battle of Lützen... Mona Lisa, Oil on wood panel painting by Leonardo da Vinci. ... Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. ... Mauritshuis The Mauritshuis is a museum in The Hague, the Netherlands. ... Coordinates: , Country Netherlands Province South Holland Area (2006)  - Municipality 98. ...

Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is pictured explaining the musculature of the arm to medical professionals. The corpse is that of the criminal Aris Kindt, strangled earlier that day for armed robbery. Some of the spectators are various patrons who paid commissions to be included in the painting. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A top-down view of skeletal muscle Muscle (from Latin musculus little mouse [1]) is contractile tissue of the body and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. ... Look up ARM in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Aris Kindt was a man convicted of armed robbery in the Netherlands in the early 1600s. ... U.S. Army Combatives instructor Matt Larsen uses a chokehold to strangle an opponent in hand to hand combat training. ...

The event can be dated to 16 January 1632: the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons, of which Tulp was official City Anatomist, permitted only one public dissection a year, and the body would have to be that of an executed criminal. is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... See also: 1632 (novel) Events February 22 - Galileos Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published July 23 - 300 colonists for New France depart Dieppe November 8 - Wladyslaw IV Waza elected king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after Zygmunt III Waza death November 16 - Battle of Lützen... Dissected rat showing major organs. ...

Anatomy lessons were a social event in the 17th century, taking place in lecture rooms that were actual theatres, with students, colleagues and the general public being permitted to attend on payment of an entrance fee. The spectators are appropriately dressed for a solemn social occasion. It is thought that, with the exception of the figures to the rear and left, these people were added to the picture later. Human heart and lungs, from an older edition of Grays Anatomy. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... Serge Sudeikins poster for the Bat Theatre (1922). ...

One person is missing: the Preparator, whose task it was to prepare the body for the lesson. In the 17th century an important scientist such as Dr. Tulp would not be involved in menial and bloody work like dissection and such tasks would be left to others. It is for this reason that the picture shows no cutting instruments. Instead we see in the lower right corner an enormous open textbook on anatomy, possibly the 1543 De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Fabric of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius. (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... This article is about the profession. ... Dissected rat showing major organs. ... Three textbooks. ... The title page of the Fabrica. ... Andreas Vesalius (Brussels, December 31, 1514 - Zakynthos, October 15, 1564) was an anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica (On the Workings of the Human Body). ...

Medical specialists have commented on the accuracy of muscles and tendons painted by the 26-year-old Rembrandt. It is not known where he obtained such knowledge; it is possible that he copied the details from an anatomical textbook. However, recent Dutch research revealed several discrepancies of the exposed left forearm compared to that of a real male cadaver.^[1] A top-down view of skeletal muscle Muscle (from Latin musculus little mouse [1]) is contractile tissue of the body and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. ... A tendon (or sinew) is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone and is built to withstand tension. ...

The face of the corpse is partially shaded, a suggestion of umbra mortis (shadow of death), a technique that Rembrandt was to use frequently.

The painting is signed in the top-right hand corner Rembrandt f[ecit] 1632. It is the first known instance of Rembrandt signing a painting with his forename as opposed to the initials RHL (Rembrandt Harmenszoon of Leiden), and is thus a sign of his growing artistic confidence. Leyden redirects here. ...

References

• The Anatomy Lesson of Nicolaes Tulp at the Literature, Arts & Medicine Database
• Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Professor Nicolaes Tulp by A.C. Masquelet
• Heller, Joseph (1988), "Picture This", Scribner Paperback Fiction, ISBN 0-684-86819-9

Notes

1. ^ F. IJpma et al. (2006), "The anatomy lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt (1632): a comparison of the painting with a dissected left forearm of a Dutch male cadaver", J Hand Surg [Am], vol. 31, pp. 882-891, <http://www.handsurg.eu/resources/rembrandt_en.pdf>