Art Institute of Chicago

Neck and Face Muscles, plate three from Myologie complete

Jacques Fabien Gautier D'Agoty

Date

1746

Medium

Color mezzotint with touches of engraving on cream laid paper, varnished

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Gautier D’Agoty used specimens first prepared by the former court surgeon Joseph-Guichard Duverney (1648–1730) for this book of human musculature that combines drama and scientific accuracy. Gautier signed Duverney’s name on his completed mezzotint plates to acknowledge the surgeon as the inventor of these anatomical compositions. Duverney likely prepared the dissected specimens with wax both to intensify their color and increase their longevity. The varnish Gautier used to turn his prints into “printed paintings” increased surface durability while also heightening the color saturation. As a result, the tone of these muscles and the relief of the veins in the Cranium study are particularly striking.

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