Art, medieval medicine, and treating the human body ft. Dr Jack Hartnell – Episode 12

How have paintings played a part in medical education? How has our approach to treating illness changed over time? And why are there so many paintings of physicians examining urine? This week’s guest, Dr Jack Hartnell, tells us about why medieval medicine doesn’t deserve its bad rap, the role art played in practising medicine, and how human anatomy was considered so important to artists that it was taught at the Royal Academy of Art.

This episode's guest:

Dr Jack Hartnell is an art history lecturer at the University of East Anglia and author of the new book Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages. His book is published with the Wellcome Collection, and is an exploration of the ways in which people thought about medicine and the human body in the medieval period. In addition to studies in medical imagery, his medieval research explores cultural exchanges during the period between Europe and the Middle East.

Images:

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-surgeon-letting-blood-from-a-womans-arm-and-a-physician-examining-a-urine-flask-125864

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/an-operator-making-an-incision-behind-the-ear-of-a-seated-patient-125987

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-vergers-dream-saints-cosmas-and-damian-performing-a-miraculous-cure-by-transplantation-of-a-leg-126111

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-standing-dissected-man-posterior-view-with-separate-sections-of-the-brain-125906

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/william-hunter-17181783-192542

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-physician-with-a-urine-sample-141796