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Hyperallergic

Hyperallergic

Sensitive to Art & its Discontents

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medical humanities

Posted inArt

An Unlikely East-West Collaboration in 1830s Portraits of Tumor Patients

by Allison Meier September 13, 2016September 15, 2016

Guangzhou, then called Canton by Westerners, was the only Chinese port open to foreign trading until the Opium Wars of the 19th century, and it became a rare hub of direct interactions between the two cultures. One of these resulted in a surprisingly moving series of paintings portraying bodies disfigured by tumors.

Posted inArt

The 18th-Century Anatomist Who Celebrated Life with Dioramas of Death

by Allison Meier July 8, 2016August 3, 2021

Like his anatomist peers, 18th-century Dutch scientist Frederik Ruysch preserved human and animal specimens for study, either dried or in jars.

Posted inArt

The Macabre Practice of Binding Books in Human Skin

by Allison Meier October 23, 2015November 3, 2015

Skin from the thigh of an unfortunate Philadelphia woman felled by a parasitic infection delicately lines the spines of three books in the Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

Posted inArt

18th-Century Anatomical Illustrations Reveal Flayed Flesh and Shining Bones

by Allison Meier September 14, 2015September 14, 2015

In the 18th-century, French artist Jacques Gautier-D’Agoty painted numerous dissected corpses with muted colors and quiet dignity that made them appear alive, despite the flayed skin and exposed muscles.

Posted inOpinion

The Problem with the “Medical Humanities”

by Becca Rothfeld March 23, 2015March 23, 2015

A work of literature or art can be effective in different ways — most of which are by nature invisible.

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