Eduard Joseph d'Alton

Who was Eduard Joseph d'Alton?

Joseph Wilhelm Eduard d’Alton was a German engraver and naturalist who was a native of Aquileia. He was the father of anatomist Johann Samuel Eduard d'Alton.

He studied in Vienna, and later worked in several locations, including Weimar and Jena. Afterwards he moved to Würzburg, where he worked with embryologist Christian Heinrich Pander. He later taught art history and architectural 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 on Vergleichende Osteologie, which was a series of monographs in the field of comparative osteology. In these works, d'Alton created engraved plates that portrayed the skeletal framework of numerous species, including the extinct megatherium. In Pander's 1817 treatise Beiträge zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Hühnchens im Eye, d'Alton produced artistic images involving the embryonic development of a chicken.