Category: Art Essays
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Ivan Čobal’s “Blue Wall” at the Maribor University Clinical Centre in Slovenia
Mojca RamšakLjubljana, Slovenia Patients, physicians, and staff at Maribor University Clinical Centre pass an extraordinary piece of artwork each day: a blue wall made of elongated ceramic tiles with welded iron metal reliefs. The “Blue Wall,” officially titled Times Were Better Once (Nekoč so bili boljši časi), is a 3.4 x 16-meter wall featuring two-dimensional…
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Asymmetrical masks of indigenous Alaskan peoples: Do they represent facial paralysis or not?
Peter De SmetNijmegen, Netherlands Asymmetrical masks of indigenous Alaskan peoples have been interpreted time and again as representations of facial paralysis in the biomedical literature.1-8 Among the arguments in favor of this view is that otitis media once was a health concern in Alaska and could have been an important cause of facial paralysis there.3…
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Edvard Munch: Medical portraits
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States The name Edvard Munch usually recalls his masterful painting titled The Scream (fig. 1). This iconic image from 1893 depicts a moody landscape inhabited by a ghostlike, androgynous, wispy figure, facing if not confronting the viewer. Elongated hands frame the head, pressing emphatically on the ears of a hairless ovoid…
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Faustina Maratti’s poem and altarpiece on losing her infant son
Stephen MartinThailand A most unusual altarpiece panel of the Virgin with the infants Christ and John the Baptist came to light recently. (Fig 1) The heavily-sawn pitch pine had an inscription on the back which was difficult to read. Studying the ink writing under violet light, however, it was not hard to make out: Pinxit…
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Recognizing nonverbal communication through art
Florence GeloPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States On a recent excursion to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for a themed tour, medical students gathered to look at paintings of suffering and healing. For this medical humanities elective, led by faculty members, each small group viewed these images, using a discussion guide to elicit their responses. Our tour…
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The lives and artistry of the Pissarro dynasty
George WeiszSydney, Australia Reviewing the lives of famous people is mostly rewarding and only disappointing when it changes our views of admired idols. Apart from his painting, the so-called “dean” of the Impressionist art movement is of interest for several other reasons. What more can we say about Camille Pissarro than the books, stories, lectures,…
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Morphine in the life and works of Catalan painter Santiago Rusiñol (1861–1931)
Vicent RodillaValencia, Spain Morphine was discovered by the German pharmacist Friedrich Wilhelm Sertürner, who in 1804 isolated it from opium and named it “morphium” after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. He noted that high doses could lead to psychiatric effects and that the pain relief provided by this compound was ten times more potent…
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Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man, a self portrait?
JMS PearceHull, England Amongst Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452–1519) unrivalled masterpieces are the Mona Lisa (c. 1503), The Last Supper (c. 1495–1498), Salvator Mundi (c. 1499–1510), and the Vitruvian Man (c. 1490). All have been subject to countless commentaries and learned descriptions.1,2 Just as the fictional works of novelists often include (albeit subconsciously) aspects of their…
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Portraits of William Hunter by Reynolds, Chamberlin, and Ramsay
Stephen MartinThailand The Hunterian in Glasgow University and The Royal Academy, London, have three portraits of the anatomist Dr William Hunter.1,2 They make a particularly interesting group with personalized, cryptic symbols and plain emblems of anatomy and the Enlightenment. Despite some discussion,3 their specific icons have never been analyzed. Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds Reynolds…