Society Mirror

How ‘The Anatomy Lesson of Dr.Nicolaes Tulp’ reflects the Renaissance society

Art works of the bygone times are often crutial helpers due to finding out the facts about the daily livings of the ancient society. The reason is that the art works often contain thoughts and ideas about the actual world the artists live in (what the people use, walk on, make, etc.). Most of the artists want to draw like what they see and that little desire has made the art mirror the society. ‘The Anatomy Lesson of Dr.Nicolaes Tulp’ is a Renaissance drawing that was drawn on canvas with oil by Rembrandt on January 16^th 1632. The public could think and act more freely in Renaissance, due to the church losing its power. This picture reflects what it was like in the Renaissance as the drawing describes a dissection of a man, which was forbiddened in the Middle Ages. In the picture, Dr.Nicolaes Tulp (the one with the hat) is explaining about the dissected arm to other doctors who really seem to be curious about it. Dr.Nicolaes Tulp was the official anatomist of Amsterdam and he was one of the most powerful members of the ‘Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons’. He was only permitted to have one public dissection a year and the body they dissected had to be of an executed criminal. People gained more knowledge about human body and it lead to having proper medical care and medicines and drawing and sculpting more realistically. Looking at it in an different perspective, the printing press was invented and anatomy lessons were a big social event during Renaissance. The humongous textbook in the right bottom corner of the picture have the possibility to be about anatomy which could possibly be ‘De Humani Corporis Fabrica’ (Fabric of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius in 1543. I can vision that many people took lessons about anatomy and textbooks were provided to the students. Adding to that, the study of anatomy became more popular and important among the people who were curious about their body’s function. This picture also represents another socielity, power. In the picture, there are no cutting tools except a small stick Dr.Tulp is holding as the great scientists such as him wouldn’t have done the dirty work (cutting the arm open). This shows that the lives in the Renaissance for the poor were doing works for the high class people and there were differences in classes. Summing up, I made a good examination at the painting and discovered how it represents the society of Renaissance. The drawing is just like a mirror holding the images of the society and waiting for someone to see it so it can glance the clear images back to anyone.