Subtle Butchers

Subtle Butchers: A Short History of Human Remains from Rembrandt to Ruysch, is based on a Manship lecture Dr. Ducos delivered to the LSU community during a campus visit in 2023, entitled Bodies as the End? The Inquiry into the Human Form in Rembrandt's Time. For Holland, well into the 1700s, rekindling the flambeau of the Italian Renaissance meant, among other pursuits, experimenting on the human body – artistically and scientifically. As a form and, literally. But where could actual bodies be licitly seen? In the artist's studio, as live models; on the surgeon's table; in the collector's cabinet. In every instance, observation and imagination were at play. Artists, the medical profession, and collectors of the time thus saw the body as a mysterious source of beauty. Hence, anatomical forays, presented with considerable staging acumen, became focal points of the artistic masterpieces from this time and place.