The Body at Life Size

Anatomy on the grandest scale ever attempted.

Work: from Anatomia Universa
Maker: Paolo Mascagni
Date: 1823–1831
Held by: Published Pisa, 1823–31 · Wikimedia Commons

Anatomia Universa · 1823–1831

Format

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

Size

$29.00

The story

Mascagni set out to depict the entire human body at LIFE SIZE, in colour — colossal plates that, assembled, stand as tall as a person. He did not live to see it finished; the atlas was published after his death, at ruinous expense, and few complete copies survive. He was also the great mapper of the lymphatic system, and the precision here is not sacrificed to the scale. The most ambitious anatomical atlas ever produced, and among the most breathtaking: the body as a cathedral, mapped wall to wall.

See it on your wall

The plate, in the room it was made for

The Body at Life Size, 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 Body at Life Size framed on the wall

About this reproduction

A reproduction of from Anatomia Universa — Paolo Mascagni, 1823–1831 — from the copy held by Published Pisa, 1823–31 · 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