Tabulae Sceleti - Bernhard Siegfried Albinus - 1749
5/28/2023 I shot these images with my friend Rich Breiman (@rbreiman) in early 2020, just before the pandemic, when we were beginners at image collection. Despite the uneven lighting, I love and appreciate the beauty and intricacy of the images. Tom Paper (@tomadmin) 5/21/2023Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (originally Weiss; 24 February 1697 – 9 September 1770) was a German-born Dutch anatomist. He served a professor of medicine at the University of Leiden like his father Bernhard Albinus (1653–1721). He also published a large-format artistic atlas of human anatomy, with engravings made by Jan Wandelaar.Wikipedia-------7/21/24 (updated 11/25/25)Tabulae Sceleti et Musculorum Corporis Humani is a monumental anatomical atlas created by Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, first published in Leiden in 1747. The work is renowned for its scientific accuracy as well as its artistry. Albinus collaborated closely with the engraver Jan Wandelaar, using a new technique involving grids to trace and proportion the anatomical illustrations, which minimized distortions and enhanced realism.Albinus aimed to depict the "perfect human" (homo perfectus) by selecting an ideal skeleton and muscles from multiple cadavers to represent ideal human proportions. He emphasized three key standards in his work: symmetry, objectivity, and vitality. Symmetry referred to the balanced distribution of parts in the body, objectivity was achieved through a precise system of squares and grids, and vitality was conveyed by posing skeletons and muscles in lifelike positions with artistic backgrounds to create a sense of life and harmony.The atlas includes detailed illustrations of skeletons and layered muscle men, all shown in identical positions to ensure accuracy. Albinus worked meticulously to keep joints and ligaments soft for natural poses, and Wandelaar drew from live models to capture authentic postures. The result is a work that goes beyond a mere medical atlas to an artistic representation of ideal human anatomy, influential in both scientific and artistic fields.Source: Perplexity.ai--Gabrielle Lykeyword: richbreiman medhist
