422 
FLETCHER. 
skin of his body, which he gazes upon with looks of affec¬ 
tionate admiration. 
A skeleton moralizing, Hamlet fashion, over a skull is 
one of the drawings of Vesalius, who died in 1564, the very 
year of Shakespeare’s birth. 
The work of Charles Estienne, better known under his 
Latinized name of Stephanus, was published in 1545. It is 
a curious attempt to conjoin art and anatomy, generally in 
a fantastic manner. For example, the first of the plates 
illustrating the anatomy of the brain contains a kneeling 
figure supporting himself by a staff and obligingly present¬ 
ing his cranium for inspection. The scalp, which has been 
removed, is hanging on the branch of a tree, and upon 
another tree is suspended a framed table with the necessary 
description. In the next plate the skull-cap is hanging on 
the tree, and the surface of the brain is presented to view. 
Each following plate has a different landscape, and as sec¬ 
tion after section of the brain has been removed, the benevo¬ 
lent cadaver places himself in the most convenient position 
for the full enjoyment of the spectacle he offers. In the last 
plate, when all the brain has been taken away, half kneel¬ 
ing, half lying, but courteous to the last, he presents the 
bony base of his cranium to show that all is gone. The 
landscape is sympathetically conceived. The shattered 
trunk of a tree is near the figure and a ruined castle in the 
background. 
In Laurentius’ Anatomy, published in 1595, the climax 
of absurdity is reached, for a professor, demonstrating the 
anatomy of a body which lies before him, has the entire 
front of his own chest removed and thrown over his right 
shoulder, so as to exhibit the heart and lungs for the edifi¬ 
cation of his class. 
In one of the earliest illustrated books produced after the 
invention of printing, the famous Nuremberg Chronicle, 
published in 1493, there is a plate entitled Imago Mortis , the 
Image of Death. A manikin is playing on a flute while 
two skeletons and an ecorche are dancing. The invention 
of the manikin is ascribed to Fra Bartolomeo. 
