Cover of an edition of Vesalius' De Humani Corporis fabrica Epitome, with annotations by Fontani (1642)

Cover of an edition of Vesalius' De Humani Corporis fabrica Epitome, with annotations by Fontani (1642)

The illustration on the cover of this edition shows two naked children on the top of the illustration with two skulls next to them. In the center, a man on the left and a skeleton on the right hold a cloth with the title of the book. The bottom section of the illustration represents five men examining a dead woman's body, whose stomach is cut open to show the organs.

Gender perspective: The human figures, a male semi ecorche figure, an undifferentiated skeleton with a shovel as the representation of death and a female body anatomized for the internal organs. An implicit reading is that the three figures are interchangeable, representing different stages or forms of the human condition.

Vesalius, Andreas (1514-1564)
Fontani, Nicolai/ Nicolaas Fontanus (annotator)

Cover in an edition of Andreas Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica epitome with annotations by Nicolai Fontani (1642)
https://search.wellcomelibrary.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1297539?lang=eng

Wellcome Collection:
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/vnwfgcqj/images?id=w9apauyv

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201111010230if_/https://wellcomecollection.org/works/vnwfgcqj/images?id=w9apauyv

System number: b12975394

1642

Illustration.
Dimensions: Unknown