Annibal Caro's After-Dinner Speech (1536) and the Question of Titian as Vesalius's Illustrator

• Published in: Renaissance quarterly Vol. 61; no. 4; pp. 1069 - 1097
• Main Authors: Simons, Patricia, Kornell, Monique
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England The Renaissance Society of America 22.12.2008; Renaissance Society of America; Cambridge University Press
• Subjects: Anatomists; Anatomists - education; Anatomists - history; Anatomy; Anatomy & physiology; Anatomy - education; Anatomy - history; Anniversaries and Special Events; Art - history; Books, Illustrated - history; Carnivals; Caro, Annibale; Caves; Correspondence as Topic - history; Dissection; Evaluation; Family names; Grottos; Historic artifacts; History of medicine; History, 15th Century; History, 16th Century; Humor; Illustration; Italy - ethnology; Lent; Medical Illustration - education; Medical Illustration - history; Metaphor; Orthographies; Painters; Painters (Artists); Poets; Roman civilization; Speeches, lectures and essays; Studies; Symbolism; Titian; Titian (1490-1576); Tone; Vesalius, Andreas; Vesalius, Andreas (1514-64); Visual artists; Wit and Humor as Topic - history; Wit and Humor as Topic - psychology; Words; Works; Italy; United States; Rome Italy
• ISSN: 0034-4338; 1935-0236
• DOI: 10.1353/ren.0.0297

Putative textual proof for Titian's central involvement in producing illustrations for Vesalius's anatomy book De fabrica (1543) requires reexamination. On the basis of orthographic, literary, and historical evidence, a phrase in Annibal Caro's after-dinner speech, here dated to 1536, is shown instead to refer ironically to a surgeon's notorious execution in 1517. Anatomia was a word in the satirical as well as the medical lexicon. It is important to understand the satirical tone of Caro's speech about a priapic statuette. Delivered during Carnival to the Roman Academy of Virtue, the speech respects neither antiquities nor artists like Michelangelo in its obscene humor.