English: The physician and scholar Girolamo Mercuriale (1530-1606) reads an edition of the pioneering work on human anatomy "On the Fabric of the Human Body," published first in Latin in 1543 by the great Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius. Mercuriale points to one thought-provoking illustration: a human skeleton meditating on another skull. The portrait may be one requested by the duke of Urbino in 1588. Mercuriale's learning is advertised by the works of eminent Greek, Roman, and Arab authors on his shelves.
Lavinia Fontana was among the most sought-after painters in her native Bologna. Among her many commissioned portraits, two groups stand out: images of scholars (the University of Bologna was then the largest in Europe) and portraits of the city's noblewomen. To the first group belongs this portrait of Mercuriale, who taught at the University.
Because of the social structure, it was extremely rare for women to become professional artists. To the scholars of Bologna, Lavinia would therefore have been something of a marvel of nature.
Date
between 1588 and 1589
date QS:P571,+1588-00-00T00:00:00Z/8,P1319,+1588-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1589-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
This work is free and may be used by anyone for any purpose. If you wish to use this content, you do not need to request permission as long as you follow any licensing requirements mentioned on this page.
The Wikimedia Foundation has received an e-mail confirming that the copyright holder has approved publication under the terms mentioned on this page. This correspondence has been reviewed by a Volunteer Response Team (VRT) member and stored in our permission archive. The correspondence is available to trusted volunteers as ticket #2012021710000834.
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.
You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States.
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/PDMCreative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0falsefalse
This digital reproduction has been released under the following licenses:
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Walters Art Museum. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: Walters Art Museum grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
In many jurisdictions, faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are not copyrightable. The Wikimedia Foundation's position is that these works are not copyrightable in the United States (see Commons:Reuse of PD-Art photographs). In these jurisdictions, this work is actually in the public domain and the requirements of the digital reproduction's license are not compulsory.
Captions
Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents