Aestas [Summer]

Item Info

Title:
Aestas [Summer]
Date:
circa 1675 to circa 1699
Contributor:
Description:
Aestas [Summer] shows youth/adolescence: the male figure (estimated age 25) and female figure age 18 are flanking a large basket of the type used to carry glass urine flasks, uroscopy being an important aspect of contemporary medical diagnosis; each figure also holds a flask, one of which is identified as the humor "sanguis" (blood). The landscape background is mountainous, with a camel, a horse, and buildings in the distance; the flanking trees are cherry and apple; and a pair of turtledoves carry the title banner. The sun in the top left corner conceals six layers of the anatomy of the hand; what would have been the moon in the top left corner is missing and might have concealed one of the five senses, possibly hearing or smell. Across the image, flaps display the woman's abdomen and reproductive organs in six layers; the reeds of the large urine basket contain text describing various qualities of urine, and the female figure Urina Meretrix emerges from the large flask within the basket, and the basket itself conceals nine layers: a urine flask with different layers of urine deposit, and views of the kidneys and bladder; the male figure has six full-body layers and smaller flaps showing the body's systems. In the lower left corner, the circular map of Asia covers three layers of the heart and lungs, with a dove to represent the soul; in the lower right cover, the circular celestial map of the constellations of the southern hemisphere has three layers of the liver; below, there is a table of measures of length on the left that should be used with the conversion table on the right.
Subject:
Format:
Publisher:
[Europe] : [Publisher not identified], [late 17th century?]
Language:
Extent:
1 print : copper engravings on laid paper ; plate marks 46 x 36 cm or smaller
Digital Collection:
Four Seasons (Engravings)
Catalog Record:
https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE002065197
Provenance:
  • Ownership history: Rubenstein Library copy 1: Previously in the collection of London surgeon Sir D'Arcy Power (1855-1941), and sold at auction June 9, 1941 by Sotheby & Co.; later acquired by bookseller Henry Schuman (1899-1962), who sold the prints to former owner Josiah C. Trent.
  • Ownership history: Rubenstein Library copy 1: Acquired as part of the Josiah C. Trent Collection (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library)
  • Rubenstein Library copy 1: Each print mounted on later gray paste-board backing, with fragments of 17th-century English handwriting visible.
  • Ownership history: Rubenstein Library copy 1: Acquired as part of the History of Medicine Collections.
  • Rubenstein Library copy 1: Detectable losses: circular element, presumed map of Europe (lower left corner of Ver); moon (upper right corner of Aestas), "modesty" leaf over genitals of male figure (Aestas); circular element, presumed map of Africa (lower right corner of Autumnus); "modesty" leaves over genitals of both figures (Autumnus).
Referenced In:
  • Horstmanshoff, H.F.J. Four seasons of human life.
  • Carlino, A. Paper bodies, cat. 57
  • Hansen, J.V. The physician's art, pages 48-49
  • Cazort, M. The ingenious machine of nature, pages 173-178
  • Sotheby & Co. (London, England). Catalogue of valuable books, manuscripts and autograph letters ... which will be sold by auction ... on Monday, the 9th of June, 1941, and two following days, lot 166A
Rights:
Free Re-Use
Public Domain
Identifier:
  • 002065197
  • seast002001
  • ark:/87924/r40v8r51j
  • 18018d7e-026e-4517-9f56-ff8715d29bdd
Permalink:
https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r40v8r51j
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