The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp

This painting, named ‘The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp’, was painted by Rembrandt in 1632. Unlike the paintings of the middle ages, the painting is not about a story in the Bible. Instead, it shows a group of people dissecting a corpse, which was not permitted by the church. The subject the painting illustrates shows that the church is loosing power, as the era changed from middle ages to the Renaissance. During the middle ages, the only source of knowledge and philosophy was the church. However, as the era of the Renaissance began, people started to look for information from sources other than the church, which included dissecting of dead bodies. As more ideas were proved, more philosophies of the church were found to be false. This lead people to doubt the authority of the church, and slowly allowed humanism and secularism to grow. The light that was used in the painting also shows that the church was loosing control. In the painting yellow light is on the people who are dissecting a corpse. Since yellow is usually used to represent holiness, and yellow light is upon the people whom are performing an action the church once didn’t allow, the painting could have brought effects against the church to the people. Also, if the painting did leave impact, it would have been severe, for many people were illiterate, and the only medium that could affect them was speech and paintings. If the church was powerful enough to control the public, as it was in the Middle Ages, it would have been very unlikely for the church to leave a painting that may cause the people to doubt the church. However, the painting survived, proving how the church was no longer in control of the people of the Renaissance. Through the choice of topic and light in this painting, the artist was able to show that during the renaissance, people were allowed for more freedom from the church.

Image Source