On Thursday I went to the Royal College of Physicians to draw a rare set of seventeenth century anatomical tables. There are only ten such examples in existence, six belong to the Royal College of Physicians and the other four are part of the Hunterian Museum* collection. They are amongst the oldest surviving human anatomy preparations in the world. Visually spectacular they display, human veins, nerves and arteries, skilfully arranged on varnished wooden panels, recreating the systems in the body.

 

The Royal College of Physicians anatomical tables were created in the 1650s at the University of Padua, Italy. Padua was one of the leading academic centres in Europe at the time, particularly in the field of anatomy. The tables were probably made as teaching aids as well as experiments in the preservation of human tissue. Extraordinary skill would have been required to make them which probably explains their limited production. The Royal College of Physicians anatomical tables

were first owned by Sir John Finch a contemporary of William Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood. They were presented to the Royal College of Physicians in 1823.

* The Hunterian Museum in Lincoln’s Inn is currently closed while it undergoes a major refurbishment.

 

Drawing them was very useful in helping me to develop a visual language abstracted from images of the body for use in my work. Examining the anatomical tables so closely I became aware of the decisions the person laying the dissected remains out on the wooden panels had to make as they converted something three dimensional to something two dimensional but still recognisable. This made me realise that whoever did this was making decisions based on aesthetics as well as anatomical accuracy.

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I will continue to draw collection material from other medical collections, I drew some further details of bones affected by multiple myeloma this week and have found some of my photographs from the Museum of the History of Medicine in Padua which also provide good reference material.