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The Anatomy Lesson

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is a 1632 oil painting by Rembrandt housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands. Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is pictured explaining the musculature of the arm to medical professionals. Some of the spectators are various doctors who paid commissions to be included in the painting. The painting is signed in the top-left hand corner Rembrant. f[ecit] 1632. This may be the first instance of Rembrandt signing a painting with his forename (in its original form) as opposed to the monogramme RHL (Rembrant Harmenszoon of Leiden), and is thus a sign of his growing artistic confidence.

The event can be dated to 16 January 1632: the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons, of which Tulp was official City Anatomist, permitted only one public dissection a year, and the body would have to be that of an executed criminal.

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp in 1632[]

In the timeline created by Grantville's arrival in 1631, Rembrandt did not create The Anatomy Lesson in 1632. The reasons for this are unknown. Some time later, probably in late 1634 or early 1635, he did a variant version based on an autopsy performed by Anne Jefferson.

The cover art for the paper edition of Grantville Gazette IV purports to be this version of the painting.

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