Урок анатомии доктора Дейма

What hangs in Amsterdam today is a survivor of a fire. In 1723 a blaze tore through the building where this picture was kept, and most of it burned away. Rembrandt had painted a wide scene in 1656 for the surgeons' guild, more than 20 figures, the doctor at the centre, seven surgeons ranged around a tribune. The flames took nearly all of them, including Deijman's own head. What is left is the middle strip, the part hardest to look at. The body on the slab is Joris Fonteijn, a thief hanged that January, whose corpse the guild was entitled to dissect. His feet come straight at you, the belly is open, and the top of the skull has been lifted off to show the brain. Rembrandt drew a small sketch of the whole room beforehand, and it still exists, so we know exactly how much the fire ate.