Opening hours: Monday – Friday 13.00 - 17.00 hours
closed: December 27th - 31st 2004)
The university library dedicates an exhibition to Frederik Ruysch. Winter 2004 – 2005 also sees the publication of Ruysch’s biography by Luuc Kooijmans. Life and work of the Amsterdam professor, anatomist, surgeon and city father, whose role in the city’s scientific history is paramount, are at the heart of this exhibition.
The art of dissecting
Frederik Ruysch (1638 – 1731) reputation as a world famous medic lasted far into the 19th century, due to his method of changing anatomy from messy business into an acclaimed art form. His technique enabled him to lay bare minuscule details of the body and turned him into a leading figure of the scientific journey through the human body.
A tourist attraction
Ruysch also used his gift to bring anatomy to the masses. Not only did his collection attract leading scientists but it also became one of Amsterdam’s main tourist attractions. Visitors were amazed with compositions in which unborn children’s skeletons, placed on rocks of bladder- and kidney stones, formed allegories amidst tree-like blood vessels. He also had the uncanny ability to make embalmed corpses look like sleeping human beings.
St. Petersburg
Visitors were in awe. One of them was Tsar Peter the Great who allegedly was so upset he kneeled at a child’s corpse to kiss it. He then went on to buy the entire collection. It was shipped to St. Petersburg and put on display in the prestigious Kunstkamera which boasts half a million visitors each year until this very day. Western Europe and even Ruysch’s home country interest in the scientist’s work steadily declined towards the end of the 19th century. Medical history still held him in high esteem, but the Netherlands kind of obliviated one of its most famous medics.
Biography
To pay tribute to what is probably its most influential legator, the AMC asked historian Luuc Kooijmans to write a biography about “Prince among Anatomists”. This resulted in an intriguing and vivid description of the life and times of a dedicated scientist, who only believed what he saw and spent a great deal of time battling staunch superstition, obsolete viewpoints, unfounded generalisations and trendy speculations.In De doodskunstenaar Luuc Kooijmans tells us how Ruysch went from being an apothecaries’ apprentice to become an anatomy professor.
'Believe but your own eyes'
Three impressive pieces from the Kunstkamera are shown in our exhibition room. Also on display are artful prints of sections in both black and white and colour. From the large collection of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Geneeskunst, several editions of his work are placed in the spotlights.
The world of Frederik Ruysch' conference
Saturday November 27 a conference on the life and work of Ruysch is held at the universities’ auditorium in the Lutheran church; Singel 411. It starts 10.00 p.m. and ends at 17.30 p.m. and is organised by UvA’s university museum, the AMC, de historical societies of the Wetenschappelijke Vereniging van de Heelkunde en Obstetrie & Gynaecologie, the Amsterdam Historic Museum, the university library and the Amsterdams Centrum voor de Studie van de Gouden Eeuw (Golden Age Studies) (UvA).Those interested should transfer €25,- (this includes lunch, a visit to the exhibition and drinks) to bank account number 5061.09.739 in the name of Stichting Wetenschapsfonds Verloskunde/Gynaecologie AMC stating: 'Ruysch'.
compilation
drs Jozien J. Driessen - van het Reve (historica) in collaboration with Bram Schuytvlot (curator) and Anna Radzjoen, curator of the St. Petersburg Kunstkamera. The university library is utmost grateful to the AMC and the Wilhelmina E. Jansen Fund, which enabled us to loan three of Ruysch’s sections from the St. Peterburg Kunstkamera.
