SEVERED HUMAN HEADS Medical ~ GRUESOME RARITY ~ 1794 John Bell Edinburgh BRITISH

Description: An oddly macabre early medical illustration of dismembered heads from an eighteenth century Scottish anatomy folio. It is titled "Muscles" and is a copperplate engraving after a drawing by John Bell (1763-1820) surgeon and artist, published in "Engravings, Explaining the Anatomy of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints", printed by John Paterson, 1794, Edinburgh. Image measures 6 1/2 x 8 7/8 inches, with margins the sheet is approx. 8 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches, with binding stitch marks along the bottom edge, signed and dated in the plate and embellished with the artist's name. Fine condition, rare item. "Encouraged by an artistic mother, John Bell had received early training in drawing. He was one of the first to apply anatomical teachings to surgery. From 1786-1799 he was Scotland's premier teacher of surgical anatomy, and his anatomical writings and illustrations were geared to the needs of the operative surgeon. Bell's atlas of the bones, muscles, and joints, illustrated mostly with his own engravings and etchings after his own paintings, represented a new, more realistic and less idealized style of anatomical illustration. Bell's illustrations are some of the most striking in the entire literature, although not to everyone's taste: "Certainly they have the immediacy of drawings made in the dissecting rooms of late Georgian Edinburgh. Some are quite gruesome and even perverted ... In their context they are admirable..."(Roberts & Tomlinson, p. 491). Heirs of Hippocrates 1187; Russell, British Anatomy 60; Wellcome II,p.137." biographical information courtesy of Christies, NY: https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/bell-john-1763-1820-engravings-explaining-the-anatomy-4959982-details.aspx

Price: 245 USD

Location: Spring Hill, Florida

End Time: 2024-10-12T00:40:10.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD