Tag: Cosmas
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Saints Damian and Cosmas removing a bullet from a man’s chest
The renowned third century saints Cosmas and Damian were also doctors, often shown in paintings replacing a gangrenous leg with a healthy one. Here the two saints are performing an operation to remove a bullet from a patient’s chest. The creator, Antoine de Favray, was a French artist who worked for the Knights of Malta…
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Partners in healing: An early renaissance painting depicting the partnership of the divine with the physicians Cosmas and Damian
Susan Brunn PuettJ. David PuettChapel Hill, North Carolina, United States In many cultures the practice of healing was perceived as a combined effort by physicians and the divine. Florentine Renaissance hospitals had churches and cloisters in their complexes where displayed works of art reminded patients and their families of God’s curing powers. Meant to invoke…
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Saints Cosmas and Damian, patron saints of doctors
Unlike many other doctors, Cosmas and Damian were also saints. They lived in what today is modern Turkey, where they practiced healing the sick. They may also have been color blind (!), replacing (as in the paintings shown here) a patient’s gangrenous leg with one of the wrong color. But the Florentine Filippo Lippi clearly…