Thursday, October 4, 2012

Dr. Frederick Ruysch and Peter The Great

Ruysch (1638 - 1731), doctor in Amsterdam.


"Ruysch made about a dozen tableaux, constructed of human fetal skeletons with backgrounds of other body parts, on allegorical themes of death and the transiency of life...Ruysch built the 'geological' landscapes of these tableaux from gallstones and kidneystones, and 'botanical' backgrounds from injected and hardened major veins and arteries for "trees," and more ramified tissue of lungs and smaller vessels for 'bushes' and 'grass.'"



Source for above images and text found on Morbid Anatamoy.  Link here.


Peter The Great, 1682 - 1725, Tsar of Russia

Teeth Pulled By Peter The Great
Iron Maiden
Head Crusher

"Peter arranged the "tsar's cabinet" on a royal scale typical of all his endeavors. The scope of the undertaking involved the entire state. In 1717 Peter ordered the governor of Voronezh to start trapping birds and wild animals. In 1718 he signed a resolution that read: "Should anyone find underground or underwater some old thing, namely: unusual or rare stones, human skeletons or bones of animals, fishes or birds, which differ from ours, or which are bigger or smaller than normal, as well as old inscriptions on stones, iron or bronze..." kitchen utensils, weapons, in other words all "old or wondrous" objects, the latter should be promptly submitted for the tsar's inspection. And from all around Russia various findings or oddities started to arrive: a sheep from Vyborg with two tongues and two sets of eyes situated on each side, lambs from Tobolsk, one with eight legs and the other with three eyes. All travelers were ordered to buy "rare" things both from foreign and domestic "trading people"." - source is Russian Academy of Sciences.  Link here.

Source for above images found here.

1 comment:

  1. The power of art shines everywhere even in death and skulls and skeletons

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