Joseph Wilhelm Eduard d’Alton (August 11, 1772 – May 11, 1840) was a German engraver and naturalist who was a native of

Aquileia Aquileia / / / / ;Bilingual name of ''Aquileja – Oglej'' in: vec, Aquiłeja / ; Slovenian: ''Oglej''), group=pron is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about from the sea, on the river N ...

(today part of Italy). He was the father of anatomist Johann Samuel Eduard d'Alton (1803–1854). Originally trained for military service, he learned in Vienna, a thorough knowledge of horses and horsemanship. He later traveled throughout Italy, the Rhineland and France, and during this time period, gained an insight in the areas of natural and art history. At Würzburg he worked closely with

embryologist Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, '' -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization, and development of embryos and ...

Christian Heinrich Pander, and later on, he taught art history and

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

theory at the University of Bonn, where in 1827 he became a "full professor" of art history. From 1831 to 1840, d'Alton was a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts. One of his famous students in Bonn was Karl Marx. Eduard d'Alton is largely remembered for his anatomical and zoological engravings and etchings. He collaborated with Christian Pander o
''Vergleichende Osteologie''
which was a series of

monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...

s in the field of comparative

osteology Osteology () is the scientific study of bones, practised by osteologists. A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, and paleontology, osteology is the detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, microbone morphology, funct ...

. In these works, d'Alton created engraved plates that portrayed the skeletal framework of numerous species, including the extinct megatherium.The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe
/ref> In Pander's 1817 treatise ''Beiträge zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Hühnchens im Eye'', d'Alton produced artistic images involving the

embryo An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

nic development of a chicken.

References

1772 births 1840 deaths People from Aquileia German engravers German anatomists University of Bonn faculty {{Germany-scientist-stub