Art Institute of Chicago

Posterior View of Muscle Man, plate nine from Myologie complete

Louis-Charles Gautier-Dagoty (French, 18th century)

Date

1773

Medium

Color mezzotint, aquatint, and engraving on ivory laid paper

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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.

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.