Category: Art Flashes
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Gerrit Dou and his Netherlandish quacks
Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), one of Rembrandt’s first students, was born thirteen years before his contemporary Jan Steen and died four years before him. Both painted similar works of contrasting light and dark, both lived most of their lives in Leiden, and both included in their work several scenes illustrating healthcare in the Netherlands in the…
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The tooth pullers
Having a tooth pulled in the days before the advent of modern anesthesia and dental techniques could turn out to be a pretty ghastly experience. There was a time when it was done by barbers, by itinerant tooth drawers, or even by blacksmiths. In the village, teeth were often extracted in full view of the…
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Jan Steen: Quack doctors visit lovesick maidens
Like his contemporary Molière, the Dutchman Jan Steen makes fun of quack doctors, often shown in ridiculous costumes visiting young love-sick or pregnant women. In The Lovesick Maiden (Fig. 1, Metropolitan Museum) the diagnosis is suggested by the painting of a Cupid above the door, the bed on the right, and the bed-warmer on the…
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Pietro Longhi: appearances are deceiving
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Pietro Longhi’s depictions of Venetian society delight the eye by his detailed renderings of elegant satin dresses, demure shoes, and fashionable wigs. But appearances can be deceiving. Though he lavishes attention on the attractive façade of his subjects, he is equally concerned with their actions. He invites the viewer into…
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The Terme Boxer’s trauma
Seth JudsonLos Angeles, California, United States The cavernous eyes of the Terme Boxer look at me with the same anguish and exhaustion that has intrigued archaeologists and art historians since the boxer was first unearthed in Rome over a century ago. Experts date the bronze sculpture back to the third century BCE, and many have…
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Huetation
Sooo-z Mastropietro Westport, CT Inspiration can appear unexpectedly just like progress born from sickness. Huetation, inspired by Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and film documentary The Way of All Flesh took awe from an 8 second visual of mutating cancer cells, displayed with a sequence of 3 images in…
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Portraits of vision: Sir Joshua Reynolds
Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States The subject of this portrait wears wiry, diminutive round spectacles, lending a distinctly pedantic flair. Yet gazing out is none other than Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), one of the greatest English painters in history (fig. 1). Sir Joshua headed the Royal Academy of Painters for twenty-four years, and wielded enormous…
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Winslow Homer, the eye-surgeon
Zeynel A. KarciogluCharlottesville, Virginia Although the 19th Century American painter Winslow Homer has been hailed as a lover of the land because of his striking watercolors, he also had an unmatched ability of reflecting the mood of the people in his paintings.1 He accomplished these affects by using diverse water color techniques such as sanding,…
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The plague of ergotism and the grace of God
Wilson EngelGilbert, Arizona, United States Perhaps the best known and least forgettable of all Renaissance art works depicting the graphic effects of disease is Matthias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece (1506–1515), now in the Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar.1 On the closed center portion of the altarpiece, is Grünewald’s famous portrayal of the Crucifixion in which the intensely human…
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Dr. Arrieta and Francisco Goya
William StringerLos Angeles, California, United States Francisco Goya (1746-1828) was a deaf Spanish painter who almost died of a severe, unknown illness in 1819.1 He painted this self-portrait in 1820 to illustrate the kind and attentive care provided by Dr. Arrieta.2 In Goya’s younger years as a court painter, he created light and airy scenes…