Table 28: The Musculature of the Back of a Woman

Anatomy

The twenty eighth table of each atlas by Govard Bidloo and William Cowper depicts the back of a woman, the skin peeled away to reveal the inner musculature, while the woman's body is supported by an engaged arm. The skin has been cut down the center of the back and peeled away, draping along the sides of the woman's body under the arms. A sheet surrounds the hips and genitals, creating a modest representation of the female body. Visible are the erector spinae muscles, which travel up the length of the back, the Thoracolumbar fascia which reach out along the width of the back from the spine, the deltoid muscles on the shoulder, and the teres minor and major muscles that lie underneath the deltoids. A portion of the trapezius muscle remains on the left and right, however much has been cut off to reveal the erector spinae muscles. Fatty deposits are also visible on the skin that pools around the hips of the woman's body in the form of bubble like nodes. Although the models used for this illustration were the dead cadavers that Bidloo dissected during the late 1670s and early 1680s, Gerard de Lairesse employs his own understanding of muscles to portray how they appear in different positions.

Gerard de Lairesse (artist), Peter and Philip van Gunst (engravers)

Printed for the widow of Joannes van Someren, the heirs of Joannes van Dyk, Henry Boom and widow of Theodore Boom in 1685 and 1690

Printed at the theatre for Samuel Smith and Benjamin Walford, printers to the Royal Society in 1698

1685

1690

1698

Anatomia Humani Corporis

Ontleding des Meschelyken Lichaams

The Anatomy of Humane Bodies

Gerard de Lairesse

Peter van Gunst

Philip van Gunst

Public Access (Vassar College Library)

Jpeg

Latin

Dutch

English

Medical Text

Seventeenth century Dutch medical practice

1685

Anatomia Humani Corporis

Ontleding des Meschelyken Lichaams

The Anatomy of Humane Bodies

62.5 x 36 cm

Copperplate engraving on paper

Govard Bidloo, "28th Table." Anatomia Humani Corporis. Amsterdam, for the widow of Joannes van Someren, the heirs of Joannes van Dyk, Henry Boom and widow of Theodore Boom, 1685.

Artists

Medical practitioners

Medical students