Posterior View of Muscle Man, plate nine from Complete Anatomy Course

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

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.

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