And my mind is loaded with both!
hehe
Frederik Ruysch (1638 – 1731) was a Dutch botanist and anatomist, remembered for his developments in anatomical preservation and the creation of dioramas or scenes incorporating human parts. His chief skill was the preparation and preservation of specimens in a secret liquor balsamicum and is believed to be one of the first to use arterial embalming to this effect. In her early years, his daughter Rachel Ruysch, a painter of still lifes, had helped him to decorate the collection with flowers, fishes, seashells and the delicate body parts with lace.In 1697 Peter the Great and Nicolaes Witsen visited Ruysch who had all the specimens exposed in five rooms, on two days during the week open for the public. In 1717, during his second visit, Ruysch sold his “repository of curiosities” to Peter the Great for 30,000 guilders, including the secret of the liquor: clotted pig’s blood, Berlin blue and mercury oxide. The 100 colli were not sent immediately, but because of the Great Nordic War in the year after, divided over two ships. The collection was intact, and the rumours about serious damages of the specimens because the sailors had drunk the alcohol, are untrue. Ruysch immediately began anew in his house on Bloemgracht, in the Jordaan. After his death this collection was sold to August the Strong. While some of his preserved collections remain, none of his scenes have survived. They are only known through a number of engravings, notably those by Cornelius Huyberts.
