Anatomische studie van een deel van de schedel en de hersenen 1685

Pieter van Gunst created this anatomical study of a skull and brain in pen and grey ink and graphite, sometime between 1659 and 1724. The composition is dominated by the image of a brain, bisected, sitting on a plate, partially covered by what appears to be a drape. The artist's precise linework and tonal variations, created through hatching and shading, give form to the complex topography of the brain's surface. Van Gunst's approach offers a clinical gaze, turning the organic into something diagrammatic, reflecting the Enlightenment's quest to dissect and categorize nature's mysteries. The brain is presented almost as an object of curiosity but devoid of emotion. The ordered arrangement of the skull fragments and the brain on the plate presents a visual language seeking to reveal the inner workings of the human mind. The plate it sits on suggests a certain clinical presentation, as if the brain is prepared for examination or consumption of knowledge. This interplay between the scientific and the aesthetic invites us to reflect on how we assign meaning to form and structure.