The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp scene. The face of the corpse is partially shaded, a suggestion of "umbra mortis" (shadow of death), a technique that Rembrandt was to use frequently. The French art historian Jean-Marie Clarke points out that the navel of the corpse has the shape of a capital R and connects this observation to the fact that Rembrandt worked intensively on his signatures in 1632, using three types consecutively before settling on the final, first name form in 1633. Kindt was discussed in the 1999 novel "The Rings of Saturn" by W. G. Sebald, and plays a significant role in Laird Hunt's 2006
Nicolaes Tulp an enormous amount of herbs and spices from the East, thanks to the new shipping routes. It became a successful trade and in 1636 there were 66 apothecaries in Amsterdam. Shocked at the exorbitant prices asked for useless anti-plague medicines (Amsterdam was severely hit by the plague in 1635), Dr Tulp decided to do something about it. He gathered his doctor and chemist friends together and they wrote the first pharmacopoeia of Amsterdam in 1636 the "Pharmacopoea Amstelredamensis". The Apothecary guild would require an exam based on Dr Tulp's book in order for new chemists to set up shop in