Operating Chair and Seated Patients, Diderot Chirurgie Plate XII, circa 1772

An original antique copper engraving, uncolored, combining furniture and figures in four numbered parts. At the top right is a tall chair with a deep, sweeping upholstered back and seat on a square legged frame, the back stayed by a long prop (Fig. 1); at the top left is a solid board hinged to a base and raised at an angle on a rectangular prop whose feet rest in toothed rails (Fig. 2). Below, an adult man sits on a draped stool with his thighs drawn up and apart and his wrists tied to his ankles with cords, while an assistant behind him holds both shoulders and a man in wig and coat stoops toward him at the left (Fig. 3). At the right a child is held in the same position on the lap of an attendant seated in a high backed chair (Fig. 4).

The plate number "Pl. XII." is lettered at the top right outside the border, the section title "Chirurgie." is centered below the border, and the page number "73." is at the lower left. The plate is signed in full at the lower right, "Antonio Baratti s.", the signature of the Venetian engraver Antonio Baratti (1724 to 1787), who cut plates for the Livorno edition.

The Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert was accompanied by volumes of engraved plates, the Recueil de planches, and this plate comes from their Chirurgie section in the Livorno edition published by Giuseppe Aubert, whose plate volumes appeared between 1771 and 1778. Each numbered figure is keyed to an explanation printed in the text volume, which is not part of the sheet.

With its costumed figures, the plate works well framed on its own.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.