The Dance of Death
Jacques Gamelin, 1779
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 10 x 8 in, Wrong shape: a 36% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buyThe painter Gamelin made his anatomy book a work of high drama — skeletons that gesture, recoil, and dance, staged like actors in a memento-mori theatre rather than laid out like specimens. He was a history painter first, and it shows: the plates are composed, lit, and cast. Part scientific manual, part *danse macabre*, the book belongs as much to the tradition of Holbein's *Dance of Death* as to the dissecting room.
- Maker
- Jacques Gamelin
- Date
- 1779
- Medium of the original
- Plate
- Original held by
- Published Toulouse, 1779 · Wellcome Collection
- Credit
- Published Toulouse, 1779 · Wellcome Collection
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00943
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 10 x 8 in | Wrong shape: a 36% crop |
| 12 x 8 in | Wrong shape: a 23% crop |
| 14 x 11 in | Wrong shape: a 34% crop |
| 16 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 31% crop |
| 18 x 12 in | Wrong shape: a 23% crop |
| 20 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 36% crop |
| 24 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 23% crop |
| 24 x 18 in | Wrong shape: a 31% crop |
| 30 x 20 in | Wrong shape: a 23% crop |
| 30 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 36% crop |
| 36 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 23% crop |
| 40 x 30 in | Wrong shape: a 31% crop |
| 48 x 36 in | Wrong shape: a 31% crop |
| 60 x 40 in | Wrong shape: a 23% crop |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 3,200 x 1,651 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 69, lights 209 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 151.25
- Notes
- Neutrals lean warm (yellow): the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned
The Anatomy Theatre
The masterworks of anatomy, as fine art and as the history of medicine.
All 14 pieces from The Anatomy Theatre
