The iconography of Andreas Vesalius (André Vésale) anatomist and physician, 1514-1564 : paintings-pictures-engravings-illustrations-sculpture-medals, with notes, critical, literary, and bibliographical / by M.H. Spielmann.

  • Marion Spielmann
Date:
1925
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Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: The iconography of Andreas Vesalius (André Vésale) anatomist and physician, 1514-1564 : paintings-pictures-engravings-illustrations-sculpture-medals, with notes, critical, literary, and bibliographical / by M.H. Spielmann. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    does reappear—as Roth says—in the subsequent dissection-scene of 1555 ; but was it not due to the stupidity of the engraver who, ignoring his copy, turned to the portrait to repeat the mark, whether birth-mark, accident, or mistake ? At the same time—bearing in mind the well- known insistence of Oliver Cromwell and of the Abbe Liszt in respect of their portraits—we cannot set the possibility of a birth-mark wholly on one side. In any case, it is of no fundamental importance either way. It is worth noting, without according too much importance to the fact, that in not a single one of all the other portraits of Vesalius, painted or engraved, is the mark reproduced ; clearly no one, painter, draughtsman, or engraver, regarded it as having either significance or importance.* Apart from the concavity of the nose and the typical forms of skull and face, the chief characteristics of this powerful head are mainly to be recognized in the pervading expression and feeling. There are concentrated a penetrating intelligence, a formidable and unbending will, a gay self-reliance and self-confidence, yet without vanity and without affectation, and a sure and smiling energy amply justifying the jucunde el tuto inscribed beneath the portrait. The gaze, an eloquent revelation of perspicacity and tenacity, proclaims the man armed for the fight and very confident of victory. Here, indeed, is the spirited * It is curious that other instances of aMuttermal—a wart or mole—should be cited in the literature of the period : one in relation to Vesalius's monarch, Charles-Quint (1519-1556)- In Marlowe's Doctor Fanslus (? 1589), scene X, the Emperor of Germany asks of the Doctor that the spirits of Alexander and his paramour may be summoned up before him. Faustus accepts the challenge and Mephistopheles does his bidding. Then says the Emperor : Master Doctor, I heard this lady, while she lived, had a wart or mole in her neck : how shall I know whether it be so or no?—to which Faustus replies—Your highness may boldly go and see. The Emperor, having satisfied himself, greatly impressed, exclaims : Sure these are no spirits, but the true substantial bodies of those two deceased princes ! The play had followed hard upon the publication, in 15X7, of the Faustbuch—A Historia o! Dr. Faustus and Emperor Carolus Qtiintus, wherein the incident is thus described : And in order that he might know this [i.e., whether he were deceived or not] more surely the Emperor thought to himself, Xow I have often heard, that she had at the back of her neck a large mole ; and went up to see whether this was also to be found in this ligure ; and accordingly found the mole . . . and after this [she] vanished away again. Sir A. W. Ward, who deals with this matter in his Old English Drama, cites similar stories in reference to birth-marks and called-up spirits of the departed in relation to the Ghost of Mary of Burgundy, and that of the Indian Somevada. An earlier example than these is one (of several) which John Lyly introduced into his Euphlies (1579-80); for him, like for other writers of his day, the blemish possessed a strange attraction. Venus says he, had hir Mole in hir cheeke which made hir more amiable [i.e., lovable], Helen hir scarre on hir chinne which Paris called Cos amoris, the Whetstone of loue. Thus Love sees beauty even in defects.