The Anatomy Lesson - Paperback

by Nina Siegal (Author)

A single day in Amsterdam, 1632. The Surgeons' Guild has commissioned a young artist named Rembrandt to paint Dr. Nicolaes Tulp as he performs a medical dissection. In the swirl of anticipation and intrigue surrounding the event, we meet an extraordinary constellation of men and women whose lives hinge, in some way, on Dr. Tulp's anatomy lesson. There is Aris the Kid, the condemned coat thief whose body is to be used for the dissection; Flora, his pregnant lover; Jan Fetchet, the curio dealer who acquires corpses for the doctor's work; the great René Descartes, who will attend the dissection in his quest to understand where the human soul resides; and the Dutch master himself, who feels a shade uneasy about this assignment.
As the story builds to its dramatic conclusion, circumstances conspire to produce a famous painting--and an immortal painter. Vividly rendered, masterfully written, The Anatomy Lesson is a story of mind and body, death and love--and redemptive power of art.

Author Biography

Nina Siegal received her MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and her BA from Cornell. She is the author of two novels, A Little Trouble With the Facts and The Anatomy Lesson, and is the recipient of many fellowships, grants, and awards, including the Jack Leggett Fellowship from Iowa, a Fulbright Fellowship in Creative Writing, and MacDowell Colony Fellowships. She has covered fine art and culture for The New York Times, Bloomberg News, the International Herald Tribune, W, Art in America, and many other publications.