Tabulae Sceleti et Musculorum Corporis Humani was arguably the most important illustrated anatomical work of the 18th century. Anatomist Bernhard Siegfried Albinus ,with artist Jan Wandelaar, carefully composed each rendering to find the optimal point of view from which the anatomy could be best viewed, and took pains to depict them in accurate proportions and shade them to convey their three-dimensional form. The complex process involved supporting the specimens with stands and cords attached to the walls and ceiling while checking the accuracy of the poses against a thin male model who posed nude in the same position. Furthermore, the artist viewed the specimens through a gridded net to capture the precise proportions. The active poses and backgrounds incorporate elaborate Baroque landscapes and architecture, placing the figures in a spatial context and adding aesthetic interest. The original atlas was published in Leiden in 1747 with 40 plates that Wandelaar engraved after his own drawings. The plates offered here were engraved after those prints by Charles Grignion for an unauthorized English edition, published by John and Paul Knapton in London i1748-49.
Bernard Siegfried Albinus was a physician and professor who devoted a 49-year career to the study of anatomy. Something of a prodigy, he entered the University of Leiden at age 12 and became a professor of anatomy at the University of Leiden at the age of 24, and eventually became chair of Anatomy and Surgery. In 1723, Albinus was collaborating with his mentor, the professor Herman Boerhaave, on a new edition of the writings of Flemish anatomist Vesalius, when Wandelaar joined them in the project. Next, Albinus and Wandelaar embarked on the painstaking process of producing Tabulae Sceleti et Musculorum Corporis Humani , which took them 20 years to complete. Their close collaboration and friendship lasted until Wandelaar’s death in 1759.
Prior to meeting Albinus, Jan Wandelaar was already an accomplished natural history artist. He studied with Dutch printmaker Jacob Folkema, Dutch engraver and mapmaker Gillem van der Gouwen, and anatomical artist Gérard de Lairesse. He also had worked with the botanist and anatomist Fredrik Ruysch.