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

Memento Mori

An Anatomical Tableau

A still life built from the body itself.

Work
from Thesaurus Anatomicus
Maker
after Frederik Ruysch
Date
early 18th c.
Held by
Published Amsterdam · Wellcome Collection
Thesaurus Anatomicus

Format

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

Size

$29.00

The story

Frederik Ruysch, the great Dutch anatomist, arranged his preserved specimens into haunting allegorical still lifes — landscapes grown from arteries and stones, small figures set among them with handkerchiefs of tissue. His preservation technique was the wonder of Europe; Peter the Great bought the entire collection. Engraved for his *Thesaurus*, these tableaux are the vanitas tradition made literal: beauty, mortality, and wonder, entwined, by a man who could not stop composing.

See it on your wall

The plate, in the room it was made for

An Anatomical Tableau, 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.

An Anatomical Tableau framed on the wall
An Anatomical Tableau framed on the wall
An Anatomical Tableau framed on the wall
An Anatomical Tableau framed on the wall

About this reproduction

  • A reproduction of from Thesaurus Anatomicus — after Frederik Ruysch, early 18th c. — from the copy held by Published Amsterdam · 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 collection

The Dance of Death — from Nouveau Recueil d’Ostéologie et de Myologie, Jacques Gamelin, 1779

Jacques Gamelin · 1779

The Dance of Death

Skeletons in restless, theatrical motion.

Nouveau Recueil d’Ostéologie et de Myologie · 1779