In 1632 Amsterdam’s surgeons’ guild commissioned the 26-year-old Rembrandt to paint one of its public dissections. Dr Nicolaes Tulp demonstrates the muscles of the forearm while seven men lean in to look, some at the arm, some at the open anatomy book, one straight at us.

The body was that of a real man, an executed thief named Aris Kindt. Public dissections were rare events, held in winter so the body would keep, and the public bought tickets.