Aesthetics dominated scientific anatomical representation since their inception in the golden age of the sixteenth century, as seen in the masterpieces of Vesalius.

De humani corporis fabrica libri septem di Andrea Vesalio (1543). Video from Phaidra, by Laura Tallandini and Maurizio Rippa Bonati.

Juan Valverde de Amusco (1525-1587) "who also nearly copied everything from Vesalius" incorporated "the illustrations of vascular nudes ... with illustrations which were not only more compositional but also more elaborate aesthetically" (Olmi p. 39). For example, to illustrate the bones, Vesalius, and then Valverde, positioned the skeleton in thoughtful Hamletic memento mori poses, leaning against a skull upon which it seems to be reflecting. Or, to illustrate the muscles, Valverde shows a skinned man holding his skin in his right hand and a weapon in the left, as a modern Hercules (digital copy). "Even though it is a stretched-out body… that the anatomist analyses, observes and teaches, it is a complex of parts, of functions and of actions that formulates and guides the investigation. It is the role of the drawing and the artist to return completeness and perfection, life, movement and verticality to the dissected body" (Olmip. 271).

An example of "entertainment" can also be seen in the anatomical theatres, illustrated in some works at the Library of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences of the University of Padova. The anatomical amphitheatres were, by nature, places of celebration of insight, discovery, exploration, and their architecture brought together the scientific aspect and the dramatization of the scene: in fact, it was a theatre.

In Thomas Bartholin’s (1616-1680) Cista medica Hafniensis from 1662 (digital copy), the Swedish physician, known for discoveries on the lymphatic system, describes the recently constructed Domus anatomica of Copenhagen, with rooms for the preparation of the cadavers and the theatre with the table for the anatomist, the four corridors for spectators and the upper room (conclave superius) with a peephole (clauthrus) so that the king and the noble guests could watch without being seen. On the walls of the amphitheatre, reproduced by the illustrator, are two skeletons, one of male with a staff, the other a female, with a tree of life in the centre. This is a representation of Adam and Eve, macabre in our eyes, but designed to adorn the theatre "variis sceletis nitidè constructis Theatrum ornavit" (p. 6). On the walls, there were a guenon, a monkey, a swan, a goose, a hedgehog, a cock and a hen (p. 7). Even the anatomical theatre was a show, complete with entry tickets (p. 35) and printed programs "Ad Anatomen cadaveris virilis", "Ad anatomen foeminae" and "Ad Anatomen Foetus". Above the theatre, there is a museum of artefacts and curiosities.

Often the museum of artefacts surrounded the dissection table, as in the beautiful frontispiece of the 1766 French translation of Memoires sur la nature sensible et irritable by Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777) (copia digitale vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3 and vol.4).

In the frontispiece of Tabulae anatomicae by Johann Adam Kulmus (1689-1745) in 1748, there are instead books, which surround the anatomical table, placed in the background as a scenery flat, on which an allegorical figure opens the curtain. It is perhaps Anatomy, traditionally crowned by the sun’s rays – a symbol of observation? The anatomist is a female figure operating on the body of woman. In a niche on the right, the traditional skeleton with his staff.

A beautiful representation of Anatomy as a praise of looking can be seen in the frontispiece of the work by Adrian van de Spiegel (1578-1625), De humani corporis fabrica, of which the 1627 edition is held in the Library of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences of the University of Padova: Anatomy is represented in the centre with a mirror, flanked by Diligence and Intelligence, pointing to her forehead and holding the sun’s rays (digital copy).