Classes like Anne Willieme’s are part of the burgeoning field of medical humanities, which aims to tackle the disciplinary divide between art and science.
medicine
Posted inNews
The Archive of Healing, a Trove of Medicinal Folklore, Is Now Online
Hundreds of thousands of entries describe cures, rituals, and healing methods spanning two centuries, with a focus on protecting Indigenous knowledge.
Posted inBooks
Drug Culture: Picturing Pharmaceuticals Since 1850
PhotoRx: Pharmacy in Photography Since 1850 explores a pharmaceutical company’s collection of art on drugs.
Posted inArt
The Dynamic Brain Drawings of the Father of Modern Neuroscience
A publication from Abrams Books and a traveling exhibit currently at the Weisman Art Museum highlight the medical illustrations of Santiago Ramón y Cajal.
Posted inArt
When Dissection Was a Criminal Punishment Worse Than Death
Harnessing the Power of the Criminal Corpse is an online exhibition that unearths the macabre history of anatomy and criminal punishment.
Posted inArt
Responding to Human Remains with Crocheted Skeletons and Beaded Organs
Sabrina Small and Caitlin McCormack explore the life and decay of the human body in sculptural fiber art at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia.
Posted inPerformance
An Opera Revisits the Grisly Public Dissections of the 18th Century
An anatomical theater and its dissected murderess are the subjects of a bloody opera on the physical nature of evil.
Posted inArt
An Unlikely East-West Collaboration in 1830s Portraits of Tumor Patients
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
Human Anatomy as Portrayed in Woodblocks of 19th-Century Kabuki Actors
The opening of Japan in the 19th century after its isolationist Edo period caused an influx of foreign influence, including Western approaches to medicine.
Posted inArt
Creating a Skeletal Symmetry from a 19th-Century Collection of Imperfect Skulls
Robbers, prostitutes, and fallen tightrope walkers: the craniums in the Hyrtl Skull Collection in the Mütter Museum at College of Physicians of Philadelphia are fractured remains of imperfect lives.
Posted inArt
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 inNews
Michelangelo Worked Through Acute Arthritis in His Later Years, New Study Says
An article published this week by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine suggests that Michelangelo Buonaroti suffered from osteoarthritis for the last 15 years of his life.