Medicine, art history : The Art of observation
- What do a 17th-century physician and a 20th-century art critic have in common?
- Or a Dutch genre painter and a deliberately provocative American press illustrator?
- Medical semiology or the analysis of a painter’s palette and brushwork?
- Making a diagnosis or attributing a painting to an artist?
- You have to look closely, draw on your knowledge, compare, and ultimately put forward hypotheses… a similar process lies at the heart of iconodiagnostics!
Art Critic, Norman Rockwell, oil on canvas, 1955,
Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge
Norman Rockwell (1894–1978), considered the most popular artist in the United States, left through his magazine covers a humorous testimony to American life throughout the 20th century. Long despised by art critics, he is now seen as part of the lineage of post-modern realist painters. The many references in this painting pay homage to Rubens for the portrait and to Frans Hals for the canvas on the right, while the amused glances of the protagonists ultimately ridicule the critic, fixated on a detail and oblivious to the models’ vitality.
Gerrit Dou, The Physician, 1653,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Gerrit Dou (1613–1675), a pupil of Rembrandt in Amsterdam, later settled in Leiden where he developed a flourishing workshop. Famous for his genre scenes, he highlighted his figures through the use of chiaroscuro and favored tight framing with an architectural foreground. His fine manner, marked by delicate brushstrokes, conveys an impression of refinement that contrasts with the thick, vigorous strokes characteristic of Frans Hals.
