Anatomie Du Gladiateur Combattant, Applicable Aux Beaux Arts, Ou Traité des os, des muscles, du mécanisme des mouvements, des proportions et des caractères du corps humain. Ouvrage Orné De 22 Planches, Par Jean-Galbert Salvage, Docteur En Médecine De La Faculté De Montpellier.

Jean-Galbert Salvage

RA Collection: Book

Record number

04/2119

Author

Jean-Galbert Salvage

Imprint

A Paris,: Chez L'Auteur, Cul-De-Sac Saint-Dominique D'Enfer, N^o 6. De L'Imprimerie De Mame., M. DCCCXII.

Physical Description

[6], iv, 64 p., frontis., [1], 20 pl.

General Note

Several plates are printed in red and black ink.

[Half-title, dedic., frontis., t.p.] - [Text, with pl.] - Errata - Table Des Matières.

Responsibility Note

All plates are signed as drawn by Salvage, and are also signed by their engravers: the frontispiece, by Leroux, finished by Forster; pl. [1] and 2-15, by Bosq; pl. 1 and 19, by N. Outkin(e); pl. 16 and 17, by J. Wolffsheimer, finished by Bosq; pl. 18, by Doréz; pl. 20, by Cor, finished by Bosq.

Booksellers' names are given on the half-title verso: Le Normant, Treuttel et Würtz, Bance l'aîné.

The work is dedicated 'Aux Manes D'Agasias, Fils De Dosithée Et Citoyen D'Ephèse, Auteur De La Statue Du Gladiateur'.

References

M. Kemp and M. Wallace, Spectacular bodies: the art and science of the human body (2000); M. Cazort et al., The ingenious machine of nature: four centuries of art and anatomy [exhibition catalogue] (Ottawa, 1996), p. 219-20.

Summary Note

Agasias's 'Gladiator' - now generally described as a 'Warrior' - was found in 1611 and quickly became one of the most admired of ancient statues. Very soon a bronze cast of it was made for King Charles I (now at Windsor); and its dynamic and accurate rendering of anatomy made casts much in demand in life-classes: one is depicted in Singleton's picture of the Royal Academy (1795).

Presenting human anatomy in the guise of Greco-Roman sculpture was an established tradition. Examples may be seen in the Anatomia per uso et intelligenza del disegno (1691), Cowper's Myotomia (1724), Cheselden's Osteographia (1733) and Del Medico's Anatomia (1811).

Most anatomic works intended for artists have concentrated on bones and muscles - represented either by juxtaposition (bones being shown next to an écorché body) or by transparent layering (the relative positions of bones and muscles being distinguished by colour). Salvage uses the latter method, showing the skeleton in black ink and the muscles and outlines of the body in red.

As well as the Borghese Warrior Salvage shows the head of the Belvedere Apollo (Pl. 1).

Provenance

Probably purchased in 1821 from Sir Anthony Carlisle (RA Professor of Anatomy 1808-24); see RA Council Minutes, VI, 215, 10 July 1821. Recorded in RAA Library, Catalogue, 1821.