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31 May 2016

Drawing Tuesday - Wellcome Collection

In the Reading Room of the Wellcome Collection, a wonderful book was propped open on the table -
It seems to be a facsimile of Mascagni's "universal anatomy" - but no information about it was available with it, that I could see. It's not the book that the University of Iowa has a copy - those plates are 99x72 cm, about twice the size of this volume.

Mascagni (1751-1817) discovered the lymphatic system (folio with 41 plates published 1787; one is here). His preparations - made by filling the lymphatic system with mercury and then doing careful dissection, can be seen in the anatomy museum at the University of Siena.

That background information came later. While leafing through the book I found this image, with lots of parallel lines -
The central white area turns out, in the companion coloured plate, to be  the spinal column. I'm not clear which organs or muscles are represented, but liked the lines, and the lettering - and left out the lymphatics -
 Joyce liked a 19th century mask from Sri Lanka -
 Sue, too, drew a mask ... of sorts ... it's a scold's bridle, also known as a branks -
Janet B joined us for lunch after researching images for a secret quilt project.

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