De Humani Corporis Fabrica… by Andreas Vesalius.
Before De Fabrica, depictions of dissection had the anatomist presiding at some distance from the cadaver, while lower ranking barber-surgeons did the dirty work of dissecting.
Found in the Dream Anatomy Gallery.
Harmen Liemburg’s illustration for an article in a magazine you won’t find over here is a collage of engravings by Cornelis Huijberts, Josef Mulder and Jan Wandelaar in the books of Dutch botanist and anatomist Frederik Ruysch[1]. Perhaps O’Reilly can commision him to do some covers for a dark surrealist series of programming books?
I also really like his poster for the 2005 International Poster and Graphic Arts Festival of Chaumont, which combines various elements of the exhibited prints with new work.
[1]: Be sure to check out Wandelaar’s work. Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani features some bizarre backgrounds accompanying the anatomical sketches. One of the more famous is Human Skeleton with Young Rhinoceros. While looking for a quality version of that engraving I came across a post by Glyins Ridley discussing how that very image was the origin of her book Clara’s Grand Tour. Yes, the rhino in that engraving was named Clara, and she was on display across Europe from 1741 to 1758.
[this is awesome]
engravings are so sweet looking. i wonder if you can do image->eps->ponoko->letterpress->paper.
