Contrasting Views of the Leiden Anatomical Theater Published a Year Apart

In 1610 bookseller Andreas Cloucq published an engraving of the Anatomical Theatre at the University of Leiden engraved by Willem Isaacz. van Swanenberg after a drawing by Jan Cornelisz. van't Woudt (Woudanus). The engraving appears to be partly an accurate representation of the theater and part allegory, with skeletons that probably would have served as museum specimens for reference in the theatre impossibly arranged in life-like poses on railings.

One year earlier van't Woudt drew a very different image of the same theater, depicting, it is believed the Dutch anatomist Pieter Pauw lecturing, and the theater filled with a bustling audience.