Here we see the members of the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons as they perform their annual public dissection. They are dissecting the body of a man who has just been hanged for criminal acts. There probably would have been many more people present at the dissection and Dr. Tulp would have had an assistant do the actual work, but Rembrandt has ingeniously brought focus upon the doctor by placing him in an active role, front and center. There is an anatomy book placed at the body’s feet that represents the interest in science and learning during the Baroque era.
