The Sick Rose Or; Disease and the Art of Medical Illustration Richard Barnett Thames and Hudson Ltd, 2014 HB, 256pp, £19.95, 978-0500517345
Barely had I got through the door of the mess with my copy of The Sick Rose, before a number of colleagues had stopped me, intrigued by the familiar cover picture depicting cholera. Reactions varied from disgust to amazement as, I guarantee, will yours, as you peruse this wonderful annal of ‘Disease and the Art of Medical Illustration’.
Split into 10 chapters, skin — ‘The boundary of the Body’ — is given extensive coverage, including smallpox and leprosy. Incredible hand-drawn Japanese images of smallpox from the late 17–18th century had me simultaneously entranced and repulsed. Although fascinating, I hope never to witness this degree of aesthetic carnage from disease in my lifetime.
Barnett weaves a dark history of the anatomy underworld leaving me grateful that lax laws of cadaver procurement no longer exist. Bodysnatchers in Britain were kept in check with the 1832 Anatomy Act. Interestingly, there is still no knowledge of exactly how the bodies were obtained for Gray’s Anatomy published in 1852.
The revelation of syphilitic artists, including Beethoven, Tolstoy, and Nietzsche, begins the chapter on venereal disease telling of a time when surgeons treated syphilis with mercury. The book marries art history with medical illustration history throughout but particularly well in this chapter, with more gory insight into syphyllitic tongues displayed almost akin to an internet image search of grotesque proportions. The presumption of mid-19th century physicians and the elite that prostitutes were the main vessel of syphyllis that informed male artists, who began portraying syphilis as ‘voluptuous, alluring deadly women’, is explored here in the paintings of Richard Tennant Cooper.
Various kinds of syphilitic lesions affecting the lips, tongue, face, hands and feet. © Courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London.
Although The Sick Rose justifies praise alone for the scholarly Barnett rendering historical content entertaining, flicking through makes me nostalgic for the rite of passage of dissection, now sadly defunct for many medical schools. There is something romantic about the marriage of science and art and it is astoundingly displayed with the wealth of the Wellcome Collection’s anatomical art library in this book.
Illustration seems antiquated within our camera-ready, e-sharing society, making The Sick Rose even more charming as a coffee table book. Just be wary of leaving it there when serving cake, as it will meddle with even the hardiest of stomachs!
- © British Journal of General Practice 2015
