Comparative Guts

Comparative
Guts

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Bernardino Capitelli, Anatomische Sektion, ca. 1604-1639 — Die Schwarz-Weiß Radierung im Querformat ist eine Reproduktion und zeigt zwei Männer mit Messinstrumenten an einem Tisch. Darauf liegt eine Leiche. Der Tisch besteht aus einer Platte auf zwei niedrigen Böcken. Sie ist so lang wie die Leiche darauf. Die Leiche liegt auf dem Rücken. Ihr rechter Arm hängt über die Tischkante herab. Die Hand berührt den Boden. Der Bauchraum ist geöffnet. Er erscheint dunkel. Eine kleine brennende Kerze ist in den Brustkorb des Leichnams am unteren Ende des Brustbeins eingelassen. Hinter dem Kopfende des Tisches kniet einer der Männer. Mit der rechten Hand hat er sich auf einen Zirkel gestützt. Die Enden des Zirkels stehen auf dem Boden. Den linken Arm hat er in Richtung des anderen Mannes am Fußende des Tisches ausgestreckt. Sein Oberkörper scheint unbekleidet zu sein. Er trägt einen Schurz und einen flachen Hut mit breiter Krempe. Kopf und Hals des Mannes sind schwarz gezeichnet. Gesichtszüge sind nicht zu erkennen. Der Mann am Fußende sitzt auf einem Hocker. In seiner linken Hand hält er die Spitze eines Dreieckslineals, dass über seine Schulter ragt. Den rechten Arm hat er ausgestreckt. Die Hand befindet sich in der Bauchhöhle der Leiche. Der Mann trägt ein Oberteil mit gepolsterten Ärmelansätzen an den Oberarmen. Ein flacher Hut mit breiter Krempe beschattet Teile seines Gesichts. —— Bernardino Capitelli, Anatomical Dissection, ca. 1604-1639 — This black-and-white etching in landscape format is a copy and shows two men with measuring instruments at a table. A corpse is lying on it. The table is as long as the cadaver lying on it and consists of a plate on two low trestles. The corpse is lying on its back. Its right arm hangs down over the edge of the table and its hand is touching the floor. The abdominal cavity is open and appears dark. There is a small lit candle inserted into the corpse’s ribcage at the bottom of the sternum. Behind the head of the table, one of the men is kneeling. With his right hand, he has supported himself on a compass. The ends of the compass are on the floor. His left arm is stretched out towards the other man at the foot of the table. His upper body appears to be unclothed. He is wearing an apron and a flat hat with a wide brim. The man's head and neck are heavily etched in black. His facial features are not visible. The man at the foot of the table is sitting on a stool. In his left hand, he is holding the tip of a triangular ruler that is sticking out over his shoulder. His right arm is stretched out and his hand is in the corpse’s abdominal cavity. The man is wearing a top with padded sleeve attachments on the upper arms. A flat hat with a wide brim shades parts of his face.

Anatomical Dissection, 1495-approximately 1543.

The drawing is linked to the name of Bartolomeo Manfredi and, more lastingly, to Polidoro Caldara (Polidoro da Caravaggio). The Sienese artist Bernardino Capitelli, has also been suggested as a possibility.
Medium: Pen and brown ink on off-white paper. Collection: Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.
Two men studying a corpse by the light of a candle stuck in its chest. Etching after a drawing attributed to Polidoro Caldara (Polidoro da Caravaggio).
Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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In the Renaissance era, the tempo and sequence of a dissection were dictated by the decomposition rate of the individual structures of the cadaver. Traditionally, the dissectors began by opening the abdomen – to isolate the viscera.
The image illustrates a dissection that is illuminated by a single candle, inserted into the cadaver’s rib cage. Candles provide a light of proximity, that is, their luminance does not extend far into the darkness. Moreover, the quality of candlelight appears erratic: it creates flickering shadows, distorts our perception of forms, and they generate heat. All of which is inimical to the viewing and preservation of a rapidly decaying body. Yet both dissectors are shown holding instruments of measurement, which suggests there was an expectation of precision.
Relating this image to Fig. 2, the illustration from De Humani Corporis Fabrica, historical records reference Andreas Vesalius working by candlelight also—however, his dissections were often public affairs with hundreds of people in attendance. A sixteenth-century medical student, Baldassar Helser, recounted in his class notes the mise en scène of one of Vesalius’ candle-lit dissections: ‘A table on which the subject was laid, was conveniently and well installed with four steps of benches in a circle, so that nearly 200 persons could see the anatomy…. At last, D. Andreas Vesalius arrived, and many candles were lighted so we all should see.’ (1)

1. Baldassar Heseler, Andreas Vesalius’ First Public Anatomy at Bologna, 1540: An Eyewitness Report by Baldassar Heseler, ed and trans. by Ruben Eriksson. Uppsala and Stockholm: Alqvist and Wiksells (1959), 85.
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