3 2 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 



but first let us have a portrait of Vesalius, the master. Fig. 4 

 shows a reproduction of the portrait with which his work 

 is provided. He is represented in academic costume, prob- 

 ably that which he wore at lectures, in the act of demonstrat- 

 ing the muscles of the arm. The picture is reduced, and in 

 the reduction loses something of the force of the original. 

 We see a strong, independent, self-willed countenance; what 

 his features lack in refinement they make up in force; not 

 an artistic or poetic face, but the face of the man of action 

 with scholarly training. 



His Great Book. — The book of Vesalius laid the founda- 

 tion of modern biological science. It is more than a land- 

 mark in the progress of science — it created an epoch. It is 

 not only interesting historically, but on account of the highly 

 artistic plates with which it is illustrated it is interesting to 

 examine by one not an anatomist. For executing the plates 

 Vesalius secured the service of a fellow-countryman, John 

 Stephen de Calcar, who was one of the most gifted pupils of 

 Titian. The drawings are of such high artistic quality that 

 for a long time they were ascribed to Titian. The artist has 

 attempted to soften the necessarily prosaic nature of anatom- 

 ical illustrations by introducing an artistic background of 

 landscape of varied features, with bridges, roads, streams, 

 buildings, etc. The employment of a background even in 

 portrait-painting was not uncommon in the same century, 

 as in Leonardo da Vinci's well-known Mona Lisa, with its 

 suggestive perspective of water, rocks, etc. 



Fig. 5 will give an idea on a small scale of one of the plates 

 illustrating the work of Vesalius. The plates in the original 

 are of folio size, and represent a colossal figure in the fore- 

 ground, with a background showing between the limbs and 

 at the sides of the figure. There is considerable variety as 

 regards the background, no two plates being alike. 



Also, in delineating the skeleton, the artist has given to 



