An elderly anatomist contemplates the heart that he has excised from the corpse of a beautiful, young woman

An elderly anatomist contemplates the heart that he has excised from the corpse of a beautiful, young woman

"This photogravure is after an oil painting, now in the Museo de Belles Artes in Malaga, Spain, painted by the Spanish artist Enrique Simonet y Lombardo, while he was in Rome, in 1890. Its original title is ¡Y tenía corazón!, or "She had a heart". An elderly anatomist is shown holding the heart of the corpse of a beautiful, young woman which is laid out, half-draped, on a table before him, bathed in light entering through the window on the facing wall. In his right hand he holds the blood-stained scalpel which he has used to remove the heart. On the wall behind him, next to the lantern, is the lower half of a crucifixion - an indication that the scene takes place in a hospital under religious administration. On the window ledge are arranged distillation bottles and on a table in the right foreground are two scalpels, a large sponge and a bowl. The theme of the contemplation of death, the apparently living corpse, and youthful, feminine beauty is also the subject of catalogue nos 25532 and 25570. For another example of this print, see catalogue no. 25615"

lettering: L'anatomie du coeur ; E. Simonet Rom<a '90> ; E. Simonet pinx. ; Rud. Schuster, Heliogr. The artist's name appears twice: signature and date at the lower left of the image on the wooden stretcher; at the lower left of the sheet, below the image

1 print : photogravure ; image 31 x 54 cm

Photogravure by R. Schuster, 1907, after a painting by E. Simonet (1864-1927), 1890

Wellcome
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/vd38basb

Berlin : Rud. Schuster, 1906.
***check for distribution***

1906

References note
G. Wolf-Heidegger and A. M. Cetto, Die Anatomische Sektion in bildlicher Darstellung, Basel and New York 1967, no. 89, p. 183
C. Reyero and M. Freixa, Pintura y escultura en España, 1800-1910, Madrid 1995, p. 236, fig. 139
K. Linker, Love for sale. The words and pictures of Barbara Kruger, New York 1990, "No radio", p. 39
D.J. Rothman, S. Marcus and S. Kiceluk, Medicine and western civilization, New Brunswick 1995, p. 422