Portrait of Andreas Vesalius
Dublin Core
Title
Portrait of Andreas Vesalius
Subject
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564); Medicine in art
Description
The great anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) complained about the damaged reputation of medicine in his preface to De Fabrica Corporis Humani. Vesalius blamed the profession itself for abandoning standards deserving of the public trust: “But it was especially after the ruin spread by the Goths, when all the sciences went to ruin, that more fashionable doctors…despising the work of the hand, began to delegate to slaves the manual attentions which they judged needful for their patients, and themselves merely to stand over them like master builders.” In his author portrait from the Fabrica, Vesalius points to the hand of a dissected cadaver, suggesting that physicians should reclaim the territory relegated to barber-surgeons and practice medicine with their hands as well as their diplomas.
Creator
attributed to Jan van Calkar (ca. 1499-1546)
Source
Andreas Vesalius, De Fabrica corporis humani, Basel: Johannes Oportinus, 1543
Publisher
Johannes Oporinus (1507-1568)
Date
1543
Contributor
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
Rights
Format
Woodcut; original dimensions, 420 x 277 mm
Language
[no text]
Type
Still image
Identifier
[no text]
Coverage
[no text]
Files
Citation
attributed to Jan van Calkar (ca. 1499-1546), “Portrait of Andreas Vesalius,” The Anatomist: Early Modern Medical Satire, accessed March 29, 2024, https://anatomist.omeka.net/items/show/2.