For what purpose was Rembrandt's "Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp" actually created?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

On January 31, 1632, the Dutch surgeon and anatomist Dr. Tulp gave a lecture in Amsterdam on muscle tendons in human hands. This fact was documented in his painting by the magnificent master of the Golden Age of Holland - Rembrandt. Many are trying to find deeper meaning in this canvas. However, its true purpose will surprise many.

About the artist

Rembrandt is considered one of the outstanding painters of the Dutch Baroque. Numbers speak about him: ⦁ 40 years of creative career 400 paintings 1000 drawings 300 engravings Rembrandt was born in Leiden in 1606. This truly golden age of Holland, when the country was at the height of the wealth of the merchant class, served Rembrandt throughout his long career. Rembrandt and his fellow Dutch artists were generously supported by a wealthy, Protestant and growing middle class. Patrons enthusiastically commissioned works of art.

The practice of creating group portraits

Many different types of art became popular during the Dutch Baroque period. Small Dutch paintings (small pictures of everyday life) were extremely popular among the middle class clientele. These were still lifes, landscapes and prints. The larger and more complex group portrait also became popular in Holland in the 17th century. It was a kind of advertising campaign of that time. A monumental group portrait of people of a particular profession was placed in a public space to promote a particular organization. In the Netherlands, there was a tradition of giving lectures on anatomy, founded by pioneer anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1514-64). Once a year, the leader of anatomy, the head of the guild of surgeons, gave a lecture to members of his guild with demonstrative surgical actions (in the process, a human corpse was often used). Nicholas Tulpa had the same responsibility. In 1628, Dr. Tulp was appointed projector of the Amsterdam Anatomy Guild. His lecture took place on January 31, 1632. It is this scene that Rembrandt depicts in Dr. Tulpa's Anatomy Lesson.

Anatomy lesson of Dr. Tulpa

The painting is not an authentic record of the autopsy from the 1632 lecture (which, according to the rules, should have started with the opening of the stomach and skull), but is an imaginary scene. The artist was tasked with preparing a portrait of the doctor together with his colleagues. It is likely that his acquaintance with such an influential person played a vital role in his successful career in Amsterdam, where he moved in 1631. This was certainly a wise professional decision, as it was then one of the richest and largest cities in Europe. Just a year after his arrival, Rembrandt was asked to paint a group portrait of the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons, a painting that eventually became known as Dr. Tulpa's Anatomy Lesson. On the canvas, the master depicted the climax of the dissection of the human body. In addition to Dr. Tulpa, in the painting we see seven members of the Guild of Surgeons, each of whom paid a considerable sum to be included in the painting. Here is such an advertising and marketing ploy of the 17th century. In the lower right-hand corner is a large open textbook on anatomy, almost certainly De humani corporis fabrica (Tissue of the Human Body, 1543 by Andreas Vesalius, with whom Rembrandt flatteringly associates Tulpa.

The process of creating the canvas took place in the private gallery of Hendrik van Wilenburg (the cousin of Rembrandt's beloved wife, Saskia, the artist's chief dealer). The painter actually lives and works indoors. Several of his early masterpieces have already been painted in this stately four-story building on the Amstel Canal. Including the amazing Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulpa. This is the first significant work after the move that brought its creator wealth and fame.

Composition and accents

A more complex composition is created in the picture than it seems at first glance. The unconditional focus of the picture is Dr. Tulp, who demonstrates the structure of the musculature of the left arm of the corpse. Nicholas Tulp, dressed in a dark suit and hat, uses tongs to mark specific muscles and tendons in the arm of a corpse, demonstrating their work with the fingers of his left hand. What else sets him apart from his colleagues is that he is the only one in a headdress.

But with the black-and-white technique, Rembrandt singled out … the corpse itself. He is the brightest spot in the picture. Seven colleagues surround Dr. Tulpa, and they all look in different directions - some are looking at the corpse, some are looking at the lecturer, and others are looking directly at the viewer.

The corpse - a recently executed thief named Adrian Adrianszun - lies almost parallel to the composition of the painting. By the way, before Rembrandt, artists did not particularly show the faces of corpses (covering them with heroes or objects). Rembrandt did this, but covered half of his face with the shadow of one of the surgeons.

Of course, if Rembrandt had lived in other (more religious parts of Europe) he would not have been allowed to paint such a frank picture. The Catholic principle of the resurrection required that dead bodies be buried in a state of integrity. This fact explains to us why Leonardo was forced to secretly dismember human bodies. However, in Protestant Holland, 113 years after Leonardo's death, autopsy was not only a common practice, but also a public spectacle full of food, wine and discussion.

Second portrait of Tulpa's successor

A quarter century later, Rembrandt was commissioned to paint a portrait of Dr. Johan Deiman, Tulp's successor as chief anatomist in Amsterdam. Both of these portraits ("Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulpa" and "Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Deiman") hung in the Amsterdam Museum of History. However, the second canvas was badly damaged by a fire in 1723. Only its central fragment has survived.

Thus, we examined the canvas by Rembrandat, dedicated to the guild of surgeons and Nicholas Tulp himself. The moral message of Dr. Tulpa's Anatomy Lesson was hardly profound. I still lean towards the marketing premise of the portrait. Celebrate and praise the guild surgeons and Dr. Tulpa himself.