Gautier d'Agoty, mezzotint ecorche female torso, back, 1746

Gautier Dagoty

1746

Wellcome Collection

A mezzotint anatomical illustration shows the back musculature of a female torso, with labels indicating different muscles and bones. The figure is shown in profile, looking to the right. Muscles of the back in a female Jacques Fabien Gautier d'Agoty published a series of anatomy plates using a colour mezzotint process which had first been developed by Jacob Christoph Le Blon (1667-1741), in whose workshop Gautier d'Agoty had served as an assistant. In 1737, Le Blon obtained a copyright to publish a complete colour anatomy atlas, which never appeared. To Le Blon's process, which used the three colours of red, yellow and blue, Gautier d'Agoty added black and claimed the process to be his own invention. The plates are after dissections prepared by J. F. Duverney (d. 1748), a Parisian surgeon and demonstrator of anatomy