Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.11864

    Surinam toad preparations

    Date
    1710
    Creator
    Joseph Mulder (1659 - 1718, Dutch) , Printmaker
    Object type
    Library reference
    RCN61717
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 230mm
    width (print): 180mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > animal
    Description
    Two preparations of Surinam toads (Pipa pipa) by Frederick Ruysch presented in jars with lids decorated with shells, corals and small amphibians. Both figures show the egg pockets and (in the case of figure 1 (left) fully-formed young emerging. Figure 2 shows the reptile opened to show the skin. A snake is twined between the jars.

    Plate 4 from the book Thesaurus animalium primus, by Frederick Ruysch (Joannem Wolters, Amsterdam, 1710).

    The illustration is inscribed above ‘TAB.IV’

    Frederik Ruysch created a cabinet of curiosities in Amsterdam, Netherlands in the 1690s. It contained both human and animal specimens and was renowned for the imaginative presentations which blurred boundaries between science and art. The collection was purchased by Peter the Great of Russia in 1717 and transferred to St Petersburg.

    Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731), Dutch botanist and anatomist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1715.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Netherlands
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