Interlude: Medical Visual

There is something anatomically incorrect about this color illustration, can you tell what it is?Artist: Jacques Fabian Gautier d'Agoty (1717-1785)Surgeon: Jacques-Francois-Marie Duverney (1661-1748)Trained as a printmaker, Gautier d'Agoty created his illustrations using a technique he helped pioneer, color mezzotinting. Mezzotinting involves making different color impressions using individual copperplates. He was the first to use colored mezzotinting in anatomical illustration.Gautier d'Agoty worked with the surgeon Duverney to produce a series of life-sized plates. And although Duverney and several others helped him create the plates, d'Agoty boasts that he is the "demonstrator, artist and engraver all in one." He was a very passionate and dedicated individual, however, his beautiful illustrations are noted more for their style than their usefulness to physicians. (The heart in the above illustration is not in the correct anatomical position)Sarah Lowengard wrote a nicely detailed article on d'Agoty. Read it at gutenberg.org.