This is one of the anatomical prints by Jacques-Fabien Gautier
d'Agoty (1711-1785), whose claim to fame is his use of the unusual
technique of the colour mezzotint. The technique had been first
used by his teacher Jacob Christoph Le Blon (1667-1741), who
communicated it to his four pupils. After Le Blon's death, Gautier
d'Agoty applied for a privilege (similar to a patent) for the
procedure, and, controversially, received it. The technique
involved making four (or sometimes three) copper plates for each
print, one for the black parts, one for the yellow, one for the red
and one for the blue. The green background, that is virtually
Gautier d'Agoty's trademark, shows where both the yellow plate and
the blue plate have been printed on to the sheet.
This impression seems to have a figure added by hand on the
right, showing, in white gouache, the innervation of the stomach
and kidneys. Like many anatomical representations of the human
figure in the 16th-19th centuries, this one attempts to show the
anatomy of the living figure, not of the corpse. There were several
reasons for this convention: one was to make the work attractive to
artists, and another was to show the uses of the organs, not just
their topography.