Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, Basel: ex. off. J. Oporini, 1543, p.163, woodcut, leaf height 43 cm, N*.1.2(A).

This is one of the three views of the full skeleton that provides a ‘complete’ figure, according to Vesalius. It is perhaps one of the most copied images of the Fabrica.

This woodcut is of the frontal view of an articulated skeleton, which Vesalius explains in detail how to construct in the Fabrica. The spade functions as a prop to take the weight of the entire skeleton, and the absence of the curvature of the spine is the result of inserting an iron bar through the vertebrae. Modern anatomists have noted that this skeleton seems to be of a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old male, though the thorax and torso appear too short and forearm too long in relation to the humerus.