Femme vue de dos, disséquée de la nuque au sacrum, dite l'Ange anatomique, planche non reliée, da Jacques-Fabien Gautier d'Agoty, Myologie complète en couleur et grandeur naturelle, Parigi, 1746
canvased paper, coloured etching

BIU Santé, Paris

Myologie complète en couleur et grandeur naturelle, planches 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, Parigi, 1746
coloured mezzotint on laid paper   

Système vasculaire du cerveau et dure-mère, planche 3
da Jacques-Fabien Gautier d’Agoty, Anatomie de la tête, Parigi, 1748
coloured mezzotint on laid paper 

Musée Jenisch Vevey, Fondation William Cuendet & Atelier de Saint-Prex

Jacques Fabien Gautier d’Agoty rose to fame as a publisher and printer of “colour” plates. After managing to extract exclusive permission from the king – who also granted him the privilege of detaining the secret of his procedure – in 1745 d’Agoty began working on his Anatomie complète project in collaboration with physicians, later performing dissections himself. He continued to complete a number of anatomical works in this way, in colour, up until 1781. Unlike his predecessors, he introduced a strong element of seductiveness to anatomy. One of his best-known illustrations shows a young girl seen from behind, her dorsal muscles splayed out like wings. The surrealists were particularly fascinated by her and named her the “anatomical angel”.