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.
Tag: medical humanities
Posted inInteractive
The 18th-Century Anatomist Who Celebrated Life with Dioramas of Death
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
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
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”
A work of literature or art can be effective in different ways — most of which are by nature invisible.