Posterior View of Muscle Man, plate nine from Myologie complete

Description

Jacques Gautier D’Agoty’s second son, Arnauld Éloi, advertised his relationship to the invention of printing in “natural colors” on the title page of his Complete Anatomy Course. This plate is the third of four views from that publication, which sequentially excavates the layers of a man’s front and back muscles. The book includes only one view of female anatomy (including the skin layer), and the text suggests that, as the subordinate gender, women were simply rounder versions of men. A brief discussion of female generative musculature reinforces the view that the anatomy of women was only important as it related to bearing children.

Posterior View of Muscle Man, plate nine from Myologie complete

Arnauld Éloi Gautier d'Agoty

1773

Accession Number

149518

Medium

Color mezzotint, aquatint, and engraving on ivory laid paper

Dimensions

Plate: 54.8 × 40 cm (21 5/8 × 15 3/4 in.); Sheet: 61 × 45 cm (24 1/16 × 17 3/4 in.)

Classification

mezzotint

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection