St. Anthony’s Fire - Hektoen International

Amputations

May 5, 2020

Amputations were gruesome affairs before the advent of anesthesia. In the civilian population they would have been done mainly for ischemia, gangrene, and infections. In the image shown on the left, the man standing in the background wears a letter tau to indicate that he had suffered from St. Anthony’s fire, ergotism. He presumably has […]

The Isenheim Altarpiece and ‘homeopathic’ hospital art

March 13, 2017

Katrina Genuis Canada Figure 1: Isenheim Altarpiece, First View. Matthias Grünewald, 1512-1516. Unterlindin Museum, Colmar, France. Source. Art found in hospitals generally has the aim of comforting the viewer. Presumably, ill patients or exhausted on-call physicians who amble past pastoral countryside scenes or watercolour flowers are reminded that despite their current difficultly there is […]

Bread of life and death

January 26, 2017

Juliet Hubbell Littleton, Colorado, United States Isenheim Altarpiece, 1512–1516 Matthias Grünewald Oil on panel Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar, France One of the world’s greatest masterpieces is often and mysteriously excluded from the common pilgrimages educated tourists make in their travels. While crowds will mill about the Mona Lisa in Paris or endure hours of air travel and […]