Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.11867

    Marine and anatomical specimens

    Date
    1710
    Creator
    Joseph Mulder (1659 - 1718, Dutch) , Printmaker
    Object type
    Library reference
    RCN61717
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 344mm
    width (print): 234mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > animal
          > fish
    Description
    Two wet specimen jars containing a fish and a turtle hatchling, the jars with lids decorated with shells, corals, seaweeds and dried fishes. Figure 1 fish specimen described as Piscis zeylanicus, with a sea anemone. Figure 2 a turtle hatchling held in the amputated hand and arm of a human infant.

    Plate 7 from the book Thesaurus animalium primus, by Frederick Ruysch (Joannem Wolters, Amsterdam, 1710).

    The illustration is inscribed above ‘TAB.VII’. Below: ‘J. Mulder ad vivum Sculp. 1710’.

    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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