The interface between medicine and art has always been blurred, particularly with the work of such famous men as Leonardo da Vinci, whose 15th century drawings of the human body would not be out of place in a modern‐day anatomy textbook. Consequently, a book such as this, which portrays how artists have depicted medical and surgical therapies over the centuries, will appeal to anyone who is interested in both medicine and art.
The book is presented as a series of colour plates covering a wide range of styles and techniques and spanning a period from ancient Egyptian murals to modern works based on cytogenetics. The artists include several artistically talented medics, artist patients depicting their own experiences and famous artists well known to us all. The pictures range from being realistic to those which are bizarre caricatures, and, although some are merely factual, others convey emotions, such as humour, despair, desperation and resignation. Each artwork is accompanied by a short treatise giving information on the artist and describing the relevance of the work.
This book is a companion to a previous volume Medicine in art by the same authors. The book is well researched and the authors' passion for medicine and art shines through. There are some high‐profile omissions (eg, Hogarth's painting on Christ healing the sick at “The Pool of Bethesda”), but this is inevitable given the size of the book. Some of the works are portraits depicting famous physicians or surgeons of their time and so are only loosely related to “treatment”. Each of the artworks is reproduced to a high standard, making the book aesthetically very attractive.
This is a book for dipping into rather than for daily use but, like books on medical quotations, it is definitely worth a place in the library of those whose interest in medicine goes beyond the mundane.