Why it matters
Rembrandt's first major Amsterdam commission, painted at 26, shows Dr Tulp demonstrating the muscles of an arm to fellow members of the surgeons' guild. By placing a full-length corpse at the centre, he radically changed the conventions of the group portrait.
Did you know?
- Public dissections were allowed only once a year, on the body of an executed criminal.
- It may be the first painting Rembrandt signed with his first name rather than his monogram.
- In 1828 King William I blocked its sale; the Dutch state bought it for 32,000 guilders.
Based on the Wikipedia article The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (CC BY-SA 4.0).
