The Front of the Body

A figure in mezzotint, arms open.

Work: from Humanae Structurae Demonstrationes
Maker: Charles Spooner after Jan van Rymsdyk, for Charles Nicholas Jenty
Date: c. 1756–1767
Held by: Published London, c. 1756–1767 · Rijksmuseum · via Wikimedia Commons

Tabul. I

Format

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

Size

$29.00

The story

Tabula I of Charles Nicholas Jenty's demonstrations of human structure, engraved in mezzotint by Charles Spooner after a painting by Jan van Rymsdyk, the artist who also drew William Hunter's gravid uterus. A standing figure opens his arms, the vessels and muscles of the front of the body shown in the soft tones that mezzotint does better than line, with the head, chest and abdomen repeated in smaller studies at the corners. The Rijksmuseum dates the sheet between 1756 and 1767 and releases it under CC0.

See it on your wall

The plate, in the room it was made for

The Front of the Body, 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 Front of the Body framed on the wall

About this reproduction

A reproduction of from Humanae Structurae Demonstrationes — Charles Spooner after Jan van Rymsdyk, for Charles Nicholas Jenty, c. 1756–1767 — from the copy held by Published London, c. 1756–1767 · Rijksmuseum · via Wikimedia Commons. 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 collection