Septima Mvscvlorvm Tabvla
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Title
Septima Mvscvlorvm Tabvla
Original Creator
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564, Belgium, Anatomist)
Original Creation Date
1555
Description
This woodcut was part of Vesalius’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica. Vesalius challenged the authority of traditional medical teachings pioneered by the likes of Aristotle and Galen. The Fabrica was unlike any previous work of anatomy before it in terms of both scientific accuracy and aesthetic illustration of the human body. This woodcut is representative of the text’s physiological and philosophical approach to anatomy, depicting a skeleton hanging from a post with a natural landscape in the background; the skeletal and muscular structures exposed. Human dissection was illegal prior to the European Renaissance, which
led to Vesalius dissecting the bodies of executed prisoners.
Rights
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This image is in the public domain.