Atlas d'anatomie descriptive du corps humain, tome 1, planche 84, Parigi, 1866 – 1872

Collection Philippe Ducat, Montreuil-sous-Bois

During the Nineteenth Century, descriptive anatomy finally reached perfection. Every organ in the entire human body, and in all the stages of life, had been described by anatomists with unequalled precision. Most anatomical works followed the stages in a dissection step by step, beginning with the outer layers and gradually delving into the deeper structures of the body. The eye of the observer was therefore always on the outside of the object of study. The originality of this illustration, which shows the muscles of the face, is that it takes an inside viewpoint, with the face shown from the back like a mask that has been removed.