The Physician’s Art
Representations of Art and Medicine

JULIE V. HANSEN AND
SUSANNE PORTER

Duke University Medical University, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1999, 141 pp, $29.95 paperback
ISBN 0-9672-9461-4

This book is the companion catalog to the exhibition “The Physician’s Art: Representations of Art and Medicine”, organized by the Duke University Museum of Art (November 1999– January 2000) and curated by Julie V. Hansen. The foreword is written by art historian Martin Kemp. The exhibit assembled more than 100 historical objects from the collections of four medical schools (Duke University, East Carolina University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest University). These objects and instruments provide insight not only into the technology of an earlier day, but also into the artistry that surrounds these objects.

The Physician’s Art contains a wide range of objects from the not-too-distant history of medical “education”, including anatomical illustrations, surgical instruments, paintings, and even ivory figurines, which doctors used to train barber-surgeons and midwives who had no access to anatomy theaters. The book divides these objects into five groups—all beautifully photographed and arranged. Well-written captions not only briefly describe what each object is, but also reveal the story behind it. One of my favorites is a 16th century Flemish painting titled The Physician’s Visit to the Sick Man, in which a physician examines a small flask of urine while attending a patient. Lacking today’s technology, the doctor must rely on most of his five senses for “urinalysis”, examining the color, smell, and even taste of the urine to make his diagnosis. Too sweet, and it could it be “high sugar”—not yet known as diabetes when the picture was painted. Or could it be something else?

Another glimpse back in time is an illustration from the manual Feldtbuch der Wendt Artzney (Medical Handbook of Wounds, by Hermann Gulfferich, Frankfurt am Main, 1551), which is one of the first pictures depicting the amputation of a limb. The caption tells of a physician, Gersdorff, who boasted of performing hundreds of amputations—with most patients surviving despite the lack of anesthesia! As a precaution, he urged his patients to go to confession and receive the Holy Sacrament of Communion on the day before the amputation.

The Physician’s Art is a wonderfully written, beautifully photographed book that walks us through the science of another time as well as the art of our own. It is hard to believe that these handcrafted images not only trained and inspired the physicians of the past, but also helped us to get where we are today.

Spectacular Bodies
The Art and Science of the Human Body from Leonardo to Now

MARTIN KEMP AND
MARINA WALLACE

Hayward Gallery, London, and University of California Press, Berkeley, 2000, 224 pp, $35.00 paperback
ISBN 0-5202-2792-1

This visual catalog grew out of another exhibit, “Know Thyself: The Art and Science of the Human Body from Leonardo da Vinci to Now”, held at the Hayward Gallery in London in 2000. This exhibit offered more than 250 objects (a mix of illustrations, wax models, instruments, photographs, and video stills), breaking them into four sections: Know Thyself, The Divine Machine, The House of the Soul, and New Bodies.The collection was gathered from more than 80 medical and art museum collections worldwide.

This exhibit was unique because it not only included old masters such as Rembrandt, showing their relationship with the science of the time, but also featured contemporary artists such as Christine Borland and Bill Viola, who use today’s technology to depict images and thoughts that their predecessors wrestled with in their time. Much of the work in this book deals with humanity’s fascination with the workings of the body—often probed by resorting to dissection.

Spectacular Bodies provides an art survey of the way the architecture and engineering of the human body have always intrigued us. The book’s well-thought-out text and use of images make it an ideal addition to any coffee table.