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Monthly Archives: December 2021
The Relationship Between Art and Medicine
Greeting, loyal MütterEDU readers, this fascinating article comes from Mütter Museum docent Angelie Cesario.
Within the Mütter Museum’s collection, there’s a portrait not often seen of Samuel David Gross. An American surgeon and teacher of medicine, Dr. Gross is best known for translating medical works into English and for his own publication on diseases of the bones and joints. At the Philadelphia Museum of Art, there’s a painting called The Gross Clinic by Thomas Eakins that depicts Gross standing in Jefferson Medical College’s surgical amphitheater demonstrating to a crowd his new procedure to treat bone infections. To his left, there are multiple doctors performing the surgery on the thigh of a patient while others in the crowd observe. At the time of its creation, the painting shocked and repelled viewers as many were not used to seeing such realistic art depicting gruesome surgery. Today, Eakins’ painting is still shocking but also appreciated by viewers. According to an art review in the New York Times, Eakins “painted, hands down, the finest 19th-century American painting.” (Kimmelman, 2002)
The Gross Clinic raises important questions about the relationship between art and medicine. What other artists represented medicine and surgery in their art? Why were these representations important during the time in which they were created? Why are medical art and illustrations important today?
One of the most renowned artists to have an impact on science and medicine was Leonardo da Vinci, a 16th century Italian artist, scientist, and engineer. Although probably best known for pieces such as The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, he also specialized in many anatomical drawings. Performing numerous dissections during his time, da Vinci observed and studied human anatomy and physiology. He focused on the role of individual parts, including bones, muscles, and internal organs, as well as the mechanics behind them. Da Vinci recorded his findings during these studies through anatomical drawings which later contributed greatly to the advancements of both science and medicine. For example, at the Boston University School of Medicine, da Vinci’s anatomical drawings are still used in the classroom, providing students with accurate drawings to assist their surgeries.
Jacques-Fabien Gautier D’Agoty, an 18th century French anatomist and painter, was another influential artist during his time. In many of his paintings, he depicted realistic anatomical dissections of the human body. Some of Gautier D’Agoty’s paintings included up-close genitalia, a woman with an open uterus and fetus in her lap, and diseased individuals. Despite D’Agoty’s meticulous detail, experts in the medical field did not view his work as useful or educational. His work, instead, received greater attention for its style, which shocked contemporary observers. Regardless, D’Agoty still contributed greatly to the scientific world as an anatomist and philosopher through his scientific journals and publications.
Jan Josef Horemans the Elder, an 18th century Flemish painter, is best known for his genre scenes of the everyday life of commoners. These paintings often depicted everyday activities, such as groups of people having discussions, listening to music, or playing cards. One painting, titled Interior with a Surgeon and his Apprentice Attending to a Patient, depicted a surgeon and his apprentice attending to a patient while observers looked in shock. In other paintings, Horemans the Elder depicts doctors attending to the sick, dentists extracting teeth extractions by dentists, and physicians performing other surgical procedures.
When we look at the work of these artists, we can begin to understand that art reflects the changing scientific and cultural understandings of medicine. The Gross Clinic showed people learning in a group setting during a time where surgeries were often showcased to help people learn. Leonardo da Vinci, through dissections and his anatomical drawings and explanations, contributed greatly to the medical field years after his death. Jacques-Fabien Gautier D’Agoty showed how anatomical art moved from education to a more stylized, visual art. Jan Josef Horemans the Elder showed how medicine and surgery were practiced in everyday life of commoners.
This brings us back to the question of why, in an era of modern medical technology, is medical-related art still important today? Today, medical art and illustrations work well for presenting multiple perspectives, allowing for easier learning through different colors and styles, and for dividing something whole into more understandable parts.
One interesting recent example involves the study of COVID-19. In mid-January 2020, two medical illustrators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were assigned the task of creating the first illustration of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Illustrations of the COVID-19 virus are important because they become a visual aid for a virus that’s essentially invisible to the human eye. Since the first COVID-19 illustration publication, many more illustrations have been made that allow us to not only see what the virus looks like but also see the effects it has on different organs, how it can spread throughout the body, and how it can progress from moderate to severe cases.
By creating illustrations, new medical discoveries can become more comprehensible to the general public and provide people outside of the medical field with a compelling visual aid. Through this we can see that medical art and illustration is still an essential part to education and learning, just as it was centuries ago.
Sources:
Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons. (2019, May 13). Jacques-Fabien Gautier D’Agoty – Exposition Anatomique des Organes des Sens, 1775. Royal College of Surgeons.
Delbert, C. (2020, April 2). How illustrators created the iconic Coronavirus Image. Popular Mechanics.
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Anatomical Studies and drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. Encyclopædia Britannica.
Jargalsaikhan, B. B. (2021, July 16). Medicine in art: Wellcome library in London: DailyArt Magazine. DailyArtMagazine.com – Art History Stories.
Kimmelman, M. (2002, June 21). A Fire Stoking Realism. The New York Times.
May, T. (2020, August 20). 16 medical illustrators doing groundbreaking work. Creative Boom.
Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (the Gross Clinic). Philadelphia Museum of Art. (n.d.).
Riley, S. (2019, November 12). Anatomy professor uses 500-year-Old Da Vinci Drawings to guide cadaver dissection. PBS.
Samuel David Gross. Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved October 13, 2021.
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