The anatomy lesson of Dr Tulp

Rembrandt's "The anatomy lesson of Dr Tulp" is on display in The Hague, The Netherlands

216 x 169 cm, Oil on canvas

Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands

Anatomy lessons were especially for doctors to learn how a body was made up on the inside. These types of anatomy lessons didn't take place very often. Permission was only given to cut open a real body once a year. It was usually the body of a villain. The doctors read books to learn the rest of their medical knowledge. They also studied parts of bodies that had been preserved in formalin.