ARS MEDICA: ART, MEDICINE, AND THE HUMAN CONDITION. PRINTS, DRAWINGS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE PHILADELPHIA MUSUEM OF ART. by Karp, Diane R. (Ben Bassham, Mimi Cazort, Martha Chahroudi, Frima Fox Hofrichter, John Ittmann, Ellen Jacobowitz, Ann Percy, Kimerly Rorschach, Darrel Sewell, Aaron Sheon, Faith H. Zieske.) - 1985

Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1985. 231 pp, 4to (11 1/4" H). Profusely illustrated in b&w and colour. "In an age of laser surgery and artificial organs, it is easy to forget that many medical treatments have been successfully administered for millennia and that previous eras also had their startling medical developments and discoveries: circulation of the blood, vaccination, anesthesia, and public sanitation, to name but a few. The more than 140 works in this volume convey a vital picture of the history of anatomy and medicine since the fifteenth century as well as the artists' reactions to the human condition in its myriad states of health and illness, from birth to death. Arranged into four thematic sections - Anatomy; Healers; Disease, Disability, and Madness; and The Cycle of Life - these images are from the Ars Medica Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which includes over 1,100 prints, drawings, photographs, and rare books. Among the works represented are prints by Rembrandt, Lucas van Leyden, Durer, Hogarth, Goya, Sloan, and Rauschenberg; drawings by Batoni, Tiepolo, and West; and photography by Muybridge, Eakins, and Smith." Large Christmas gift inscription and faint erased pencil marks on front free endpaper, two small light soiling marks on half-title page, light edgewear to boards, light soiling to bottom edge of boards. Dust jacket has light to moderate edgewear/wrinkling - mainly at top/bottom of spine and flap-folds, a few tiny tears at top of spine.. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good-.