New data on Domingo Antonio de Velasco’s treatise on external anatomy

Abstract

This article provides new data on the manuscript Tratado de la anatomía exterior, composed by the painter Domingo Antonio de Velasco. This rare document was made known through a transcription (1864) and a facsimile edition (1987), but despite being part of the history of artistic anatomy in Spain, little has been contributed about its origin and sources. Velasco was an artist linked to the Academy of San Fernando, and his last years were marked by a political trial of some significance in the print media of the period after the Liberal Triennium. He composed the document at the beginning of the 19th century, and although on the cover he dedicates it to the School of Drawing in Salamanca, it seems to be the second part of a notebook that he presented before the Academy of San Fernando. This article investigates the details and context of the creation of the manuscript, revealing hitherto unknown data about its iconographic and theoretical references, as well as informing about the existence of an attached drawing.