ABSTRACT
https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003690726/9efc2e0f-c80d-4916-ac2e-5ba6d8471ddd/content/inline47.jpg"/> The Painting In 1683, thirteen years after Adriaen Backer had immortalized the Guild’s members of the Board, Jan van Neck painted a second group portrait of the same gathering of men. Once again, the main character was the praelector, Frederik Ruysch. In the painting The Anatomy Lesson of Frederik Ruysch, he is depicted performing an anatomical dissection on the body of a newborn baby. He looks directly at the observer, recognizable from the hat he is wearing. There are five members of the Guild’s Board standing on his right side, grouped around the dissecting-table, while on his left stands a boy holding the skeleton of an infant. This is his son, Hendrik.
