The Anatomy Lesson of Joan Deyman, 1656 by Rembrandt

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Joan Deyman is Rembrandt's second celebrated anatomy painting, the first being The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp in 1632. The painting shows Dr. Deijman performing a brain dissection on the cadaver of an executed criminal. Dr. Deijman's assistant is seen on the left, holding the top of the dead man's skull.

This painting is merely the surviving fragment of a fire in 1723, and the canvas was subsequently recut, though a sketch does survive outlining the original composition - the cadaver still at its centre, surrounded by men of the surgeons' guild and gentleman lookers-on.