Autumnus [Fall]

Item Info

Title:
Autumnus [Fall]
Date:
circa 1675 to circa 1699
Contributor:
Description:
Autumnus [Fall] shows the male and female figures fully mature, ages 42 (estimated) and 35 respectively, posed with their arms across each other's shoulders, each holding a flask, one of which contains the humor "bilis flava" (yellow bile or choler). The background landscape is hilly and wooded with several distant groups of buildings and a lion and an elephant; the flanking trees are pomegranate and grapevine; and a stork carries the title banner. The sun in the top left corner conceals the anatomy of the tongue in one layer with four flaps; the waxing crescent moon has no flaps. Across the image, flaps on the woman's body show the structure of the breast in three layers, two flaps opening outward show seven layers of the gravid uterus with fetus in various positions. Flaps opening outward on the man's body show the chest cavity in eight layers and the abdominal cavity and genitals, without most of the gastrointestinal tract but including bladder, urethra, prostate, spermatic cord, spleen, pancreas, seminal vesicles and kidneys in six interconnected layers. Along the bottom of the image, on the left is a circle showing the five senses, the common sense, and memory in two layers, probably once covered with a geographical map of Africa (now lost); in the center, between the couple's legs, a volvelle representing the lunar aspectarium rotating around the zodiac, used to calculate the length of illnesses over layers containing advice on fevers, urology, and the childbed; and on the right is a pregnancy calendar volvelle that rotates to calculate fetal development stages, concealing a partially visible engraved horoscope dated 1605.
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
  • seast003001
  • ark:/87924/r4jh3tq6k
  • 62691e9c-51f0-4a61-96d9-a99ad7681b01
Permalink:
https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4jh3tq6k
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