Groups

It is rare to see early modern prints that depict medical practitioners in groups or involved in collective activities. Although this collection does have a small number of group images, the majority of the engravings depict individual men in a solitary domestic setting, such as a library. The individual nature of most portraits relates to Enlightenment ideas of heroism and genius.

However, it is important to remember that individuals worked within networks. The foundation of medical societies and institutions from the sixteenth century onwards, including the foundation of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1681, corresponded with a general assertion that collaboration would aid the advancement of medicine in this period.

Men would work together throughout their training and career with other students, teachers and patrons. Especially in Edinburgh, where the medical marketplace was competitive it was important to have connections in order to become successful. Prints would be circulated in a specific interest group in order to cultivate professional reputations and connections to specific patrons and institutions. These networks and links within a wider medical community are often alluded to in a subtle way in the portraits of individual men of science.

The physician Erasistratus discovers the love of Antiochus for Stratonice

By: Valentine Green
After: Benjamin West
Style: Mezzotint
Date: 1776

Erasistratus was a celebrated physician and anatomist of antiquity. According to Sir William Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) he acquired this great fame through the discovery of the disease of Antiochus the King’s eldest son. The disease transpired to be a passionate love for the King’s wife Stratonice, his mother-in-law.

This image entitled Erasistratus the Physician discovers the love of Antiochus for Stratonice, depicts the moment of discovery. The love story appears to have been popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as there are multiple paintings of the event and several operas telling the story. The composition of the image is unusual for a medical portrait because it is not simply a medical portrait but a mixture of genres. It is a history painting, a love story, and a depiction of royalty.

History painting was considered the most prestigious genre as it was perceived to require more skill than head and shoulder portraits. There was a comparatively small market for history painting meaning only a minority of artists engaged in it.

Bibliotheca Anatomica

From: The Life of John Hunter
By: Jesse Foot
Published: T. Becket, London, 1794
Style: Line engraving

This late eighteenth-century image depicts an anatomical dissection. The image is interesting partly because there is so much happening and partly because it is relatively rare to see prints of this period which depict groups of medical professionals involved in surgical activities.

In line engraving a tool called a burin is used to cut into the metal plate removing a sliver of metal. It was first used in the fifteenth century for reproducing work. As the work is laborious and skilled it was a respected technique.

The inaugural meeting of the Medical Society of London

By: N. Branwhite
After: S. Medley
Style: Stipple engraving
Date: 1801

Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries numerous medical societies and institutions were founded around Europe with the aim to bring leading medical practitioners together. The initiative was based on the premise that collaboration and debate would aid scientific and medical advancement. The Medical Society of London was founded in 1773 and it was one of the first significant societies of its kind to be set up in England.

This is an unusual print in relation to its content, which depicts some of the earliest and most important members of the society conducting the inaugural meeting. The majority of medical portraits from this period focus on single subjects.