When Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), a Brabantian anatomist and physician, first published his De humani corporis fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body) in 1543, at the remarkable age of 28, the ancient texts of Aristotle and Galen were still judged authoritative in the medical schools of Europe. By performing his own dissections, Vesalius was able to correct several misunderstandings in the ancient authors' teachings and became one of the founders of modern human anatomy. Carefully integrated into Vesalius' text are over 200 woodcuts executed by a skilled group of artists that may have included Jan Steven van Calcar (1499?-1546), trained in the workshop of Titian. The illustrations portray the human body in progressive stages of dissection, set before landscapes with distant towns and low horizons, and posed according to the taste of the day for the sculpture of Classical antiquity. This plate is the fifth in a series of illustrations designed specifically for the teaching of muscles and depicts a frontal view of the body. Down the side of the neck, over the collar bone, is a dog muscle (marked X), not found in human anatomy. Vesalius deliberately includes it here to demonstrate an error in Galen's anatomy, who based his descriptions on the dissection of animals.
work_description
When Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), a Brabantian anatomist and physician, first published his De humani corporis fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body) in 1543, at the remarkable age of 28, the ancient texts of Aristotle and Galen were still judged authoritative in the medical schools of Europe. By performing his own dissections, Vesalius was able to correct several misunderstandings in the ancient authors' teachings and became one of the founders of modern human anatomy. Carefully integrated into Vesalius' text are over 200 woodcuts executed by a skilled group of artists that may have included Jan Steven van Calcar (1499?-1546), trained in the workshop of Titian. The illustrations portray the human body in progressive stages of dissection, set before landscapes with distant towns and low horizons, and posed according to the taste of the day for the sculpture of Classical antiquity. This plate is the fifth in a series of illustrations designed specifically for the teaching of muscles and depicts a frontal view of the body. Down the side of the neck, over the collar bone, is a dog muscle (marked X), not found in human anatomy. Vesalius deliberately includes it here to demonstrate an error in Galen's anatomy, who based his descriptions on the dissection of animals.
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