The Eyelid Clamps

Eye surgery, in woodcut and watercolour.

Work: from Ophthalmodouleia, das ist Augendienst
Maker: Georg Bartisch
Date: 1583
Held by: Published Dresden, 1583 · Wellcome Collection

Ophthalmodouleia · 1583

Format

The full-resolution scan, colour-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and explore.

Size

$29.00

The story

Georg Bartisch was a court oculist in Saxony, and his Ophthalmodouleia, printed in Dresden by Matthes Stöckel in 1583, is the first great book of eye surgery in German. Its woodcuts were coloured by hand, and its faces are portraits: on folio 181 verso a bearded man in a ruff wears metal clamps on his eyelids, set there to hold the lids open for treatment. The large head, the steady stare and the bright marginal text make it as much a painting as a diagram. Wellcome Collection.

See it on your wall

The plate, in the room it was made for

The Eyelid Clamps, printed large and framed — in the consulting room, the study, the library. Every edition ships ready to become the piece the room is built around.

About this reproduction

A reproduction of from Ophthalmodouleia, das ist Augendienst — Georg Bartisch, 1583 — from the copy held by Published Dresden, 1583 · Wellcome Collection. The source. The work is centuries out of copyright and in the public domain.
Printed faithful to that source scan. We do not re-colour it, complete it, or interpret it; the plate you receive is the plate as it survives.
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm. Framed editions sit in a box frame under acrylic, with no mount.
Colour-managed to the source; the tone of the paper and the ink is the engraver’s, not ours.
Ships in 5–10 business days.
If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.

Why our plates cost more than a poster: a poster is a mass run on wood-pulp stock, colour-corrected to whatever flattered the press that day. This is one sheet, pulled for you, at a size where the engraver’s hand is visible — the linework, the tonal work, the lettering — on a matte sheet that shows every line without glare.

From the same hand