Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731) is a legend among anatomists, and also curious folks like me who have a penchant for antique medical illustrations and strange specimens floating in formaldehyde. He pioneered ways to preserve specimens and also maintained his own cabinet of curiosities that he eventually sold to Peter the Great. The University of Amsterdam and the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography have recently launched a virtual museum dedicated to Ruysch’s anatomical preparations. At the moment, the site is only available in Dutch, but English and Russian translations are to come. Meanwhile, the pictures provide plenty of enjoyment. From the always engrossing (sorry!) Morbid Anatomy blog where Joanna calls Ruysch her patron saint:
Frederik Ruysch was a true artist of human remains, his works being referred to in his time as “‘Rembrandts of anatomical preparation'”. A high-ranking doctor in Amsterdam, Ruysch was famed far and wide for his uncannily life-like and imaginative preparations, and he used his access as “chief instructor of midwives and ‘legal doctor’ to the court” to legally obtain scores of cadavers with which to create memorable preparations, including fanciful allegorical tableaux composed of fetal skeletons and other human body parts…Ruysch was also renowned for his incredibly life-like and enticingly imaginative wet preparations. To create these extraordinary specimens, Ruysch–using self-developed secret techniques–injected specimens with wax impregnated with pigment and other additives to solve the color-loss issues endemic to wet specimens. With the help of his daughter–still-life artist Rachel Ruysch–he would adorn these specimens with lace and clothing (sometimes even turbans!) to hide “unfinished” areas (ie. cuts in the flesh, dissection marks) and add a note of delicacy, grace, and elegance to the whole; he would also often replace native eyes with eyes of glass to complete the illusion of life.
“Announcing a New Virtual Museum Dedicated to Frederik Ruysch” (Morbid Anatomy)