The Anatomy Theatre
The linework — every burin stroke holds at full size

The Anatomical Angel

The Anatomical Angel

A dissection that looks like a winged figure.

Work
L’Ange Anatomique, from Myologie Complette en Couleur
Maker
Jacques-Fabien Gautier d’Agoty
Date
1746
Held by
Published Paris, 1746 · Wellcome Collection
L’Ange Anatomique · 1746

Format

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

Size

$29.00

The story

Gautier d'Agoty's most famous image, and one of the strangest in all of art: a young woman turns demurely away, her back opened from neck to waist, the flayed muscles falling to either side like the wings of an angel. It was printed in glowing colour by a new four-plate mezzotint process he claimed to have invented — colour printing barely existed, and here it was, spent on this. Grim, reverent, and unforgettable: the point where anatomy becomes the sublime.

See it on your wall

The plate, in the room it was made for

The Anatomical Angel, 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.

The Anatomical Angel framed on the wall
The Anatomical Angel framed on the wall
The Anatomical Angel framed on the wall
The Anatomical Angel framed on the wall

About this reproduction

  • A reproduction of L’Ange Anatomique, from Myologie Complette en Couleur — Jacques-Fabien Gautier d’Agoty, 1746 — from the copy held by Published Paris, 1746 · 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

Anatomy of the Head — from Anatomie de la Tête, Jacques-Fabien Gautier d’Agoty, 1748

Jacques-Fabien Gautier d’Agoty · 1748

Anatomy of the Head

The dissected head, in luminous colour.

Anatomie de la Tête · 1748