Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1029.5

JACQUES GAMELIN (1738-1803) Nouveau recueil d’ostéologie et de myologie : dessiné d’après nature / par Jacques Gamelin ; pour l’utilitaté des sciences et des arts, divisé en deux parties. De l’Imprimerie de J.F. Desclassan 1779 1st edition. [66], [52] leaves : ill., port. 58 cm.

According to his own statement within the text, Gamelin – who is characterized by Benezit as one of the best artists of the Midi – published this atlas of the bones and muscles for artists in an edition of only 200 copies, engraved from drawings that Gamelin made at his own dissection facility with the assistance of professors of the College of Surgery of Toulouse. The first part of the work is devoted to the bones and the second part, with etchings in the crayon manner, concerns the muscles. Gamelin personally engraved some of the plates; others are by Martin and Lavalée. They are distinct from the plates of other works of its type, being larger, more artistically varied, and more expressive and fantastic in their conceptions. Allegorical scenes of death and battle and genre scenes appear throughout the book. Gamelin’s plates show constant interplay between the artistic and the anatomic: emblematic images in the 17th century tradition, vignettes in the coquettish 18th century manner, and classic studies of figures in repose and movement vie with straightforward ‘medical’ depictions of bones and muscles. “Gamelin, in the preface to the second book, is critical of what he considered the typically unvaried nature of the figures in anatomical illustrations (folio 72v). His figures are distinguished by their bold and dramatic nature poses, such as the écorché crucifixion of the second book or this remarkable praying skeleton from the first. It is followed by a skeleton sitting up from his tomb in response to the trumpet blast on the Day of Judgment (folio II). Gamelin’s plate of Death as a winged skeleton in an aureole of light, holding a sketch of nudes (folio 4), represents the study of anatomy by artists with its unavoidable allegorical overtones… Gamelin is best known for his paintings and battle scenes which can be found throughout museums in France. His technical perfection, coupled with the emotional and fantastic elements in his images, have led him to be seen as a precursor of Goya. It is possible that the young Goya may have known or studied with Gamelin, who taught in Rome during the time Goya was there.

Cited references: Garrison & Morton 401.1; Waller 3404; Choulant-Frank p.352

John Martin M.D. Endowment