Museum «The eighth wonder of the world» of the famous Dutch anatomist Frederik Ruysch

Abstract

In the article is described the history of the creation of an anatomic collection of the famous Dutch anatomist Frederik Ruysch which thanks to her uniqueness, is fairly called “the eighth wonder of the world”. For embalming, Ruysch has created new ways of filling the vessels with air and liquid wax by means of which has become possible to show invisible vessels. Thanks to
embalming art he managed to keep bodies practically in a natural state. In Ruysch’s collection were many exhibits reflecting the changes in an organism connected with diseases: a skull and a brain cover of the child with hydrocephaly, the humpback’s backbone, the big stone taken from a bladder, the deformed kidneys at a urolithic disease. Along with human parts of a body
and bodies, the important place was taken by exhibits of animals. The way of representation of a collection elected by Ruysch was based on the traditions of the image of skulls and skeletons existing during that time in the pictures and engravings reminding of fragility and caducity of a human body. Thanks to the collection Ruysch has built anatomy to an art pedestal.

Keywords:

Frederik Ruysch’s collection, museum, “the eighth wonder of the world”, embalming, anatomic preparations