The Anatomist, or Sham Doctor (1722)
Social satire, Medicine in art
The English Short Title Catalogue lists six editions of Ravenscroft’s The Anatomist published between 1697 and 1763. The popularity of the play in the 18th century reflects the taste for bawdy comedy at the court of Charles II (1630-1685), first cousin of Louis XIV of France (1630-1715). After the Restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, Charles II re-opened English theatres and issued a decree that female roles in theatrical plays should thereafter be played by women, as they already were in France. The king was enamored with actress Nell Gwyn (1650-1687), who became publically known as his mistress. This 1722 edition of The Anatomist includes the names of four female actors, Mrs. Leigh, Mrs. Bowman, Mrs. Lawson, and Mrs. Robinson, in the cast.
Edward Ravenscroft (c.1654–1707)
J. Darby, London
1722
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=rRhOAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">Google Books</a></p>
Printed book on paper
English
Text
The Anatomist, or Sham Doctor (1762)
Social satire, Medicine in art
French theatre had a direct influence on English drama during the English Interregnum (1649-1660), when the theatres in England were closed by the Puritans and much of the English aristocracy lived in exile in France. Ravenscroft’s hilarious farce represents a typical work of Restoration Comedy, developed during the period of 1660-1710, when not only the English monarchy but the English stage was happily back in business. The inspiration for Ravenscroft’s The Anatomist was a French play, Crespin médicin, written by Noël Lebreton de Hauteroche (1617-1707), a contemporary of Molière. In this one-act version the debt to French theatre is especially apparent: the role of the doctor, “Monsieur le médicin,” is a difficult read, written with a French accent.
Edward Ravenscroft (c.1654–1707)
T. Davies, London
1762
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<p><a href="http://access.bl.uk/item/pdf/lsidyv3a8e30ab">The British Library</a></p>
Printed book on paper
English
Text
The Anatomist, or Sham Doctor (1807)
Social satire, Medicine in art
The cast list from this 1807 edition of Ravenscroft’s The Anatomist includes Thomas Rowlandson’s close friend John Bannister (1760-1836). Known especially for his comedic talents, Bannister trained with the great David Garrick (1717-1779), owner and manager of the Royal Theatre at Drury Lane, where this version of The Anatomist was produced. One can imagine Rowlandson enjoying his friend’s performance as Crispin, whose opinions about a visit to the Doctor resonate with Rowlandson’s prints: “No hazard, call you it? I hazard my legs, my arms, veins, arteries, and muscles; and in the Doctor’s gibberish, I hazard incision, dissection, amputation, and circulation, thro’ the systole and diastole. Why sir, in such a case, a physician cuts up a man with as little remorse, as a hangman carves a traitor.”
Edward Ravenscroft (c.1654–1707)
John Cawthorn, London
1807
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1dxZAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=the+anatomist+or+sham+doctor+%2B+ravenscroft+%2B+1807&source=bl&ots=vYzgbCOqIW&sig=2ME0p5wcOmsK1CqFyWY0UMXzEVA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hb3jVNXCOoSqyQSAhIGQBQ&ved=0CDMQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false">Google Books</a></p>
Printed book on paper
English
Text
Monsieur de Pourceaugnac
Social satire, Medicine in art
Rabelais helped to establish a French tradition for satirizing the medical profession that continued for generations in various artistic genres. The razor-witted Montaigne (1533-1592) once quipped, “And how many have not escaped dying, who have had three physicians always at their tails?” Molière (1622-1673), the master of French farce, relied on lampooned medicine as a comedic strategy for several plays, including the famous Le malade imaginare, in which a wealthy hypochondriac is enabled by sycophantic doctors. This engraving illustrates a scene from Molière’s Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, in which two mercenary physicians take Monsieur’s pulse to convince him he is sick, while an assistant prepares a clyster syringe, a common device of early modern scatalogical humor.
François Joullain (1697-1778), after Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694-1752)
Louis Surugue (1686 c. - 1762)
1726
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1524681&partId=1&searchText=Monsieur+de+Pourceaugnac&page=1">The British Museum</a></p>
Engraving; original dimensions, 258 x 322 mm
Still image
Portrait of Thomas Rowlandson
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
George Henry Harlow (1787-1819) was highly regarded as a portrait painter who produced many portraits of famous actors and actresses, as well as this portrait of Thomas Rowlandson at age of 58, two years after Rowlandson first produced The Tour of Dr. Syntax: In Search of the Picturesque, published by Rudolph Ackermann with verses by William Combe. In this portrait Rowlandson holds a preliminary drawing for an illustration to his popular work. On close inspection, you can see the comical Dr. Syntax, riding crop in hand, with his trusty horse Grizzle.
George Henry Harlow (1787-1819)
National Portrait Gallery, London
1814
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw05495/Thomas-Rowlandson">National Portrait Gallery</a></p>
Pencil and red chalk; original dimensions, 235 mm x 197 mm
Still image
Rabelais Dissecting Society
Medicine in art
François Rabelais (ca. 1490-1553), who studied medicine at Paris just a few years before Vesalius, was likely a source of the derisive attacks against medicine addressed in the Fabrica: “we owe the fact that so many scoffs are wont to be cast at doctors, and this most holy art is made a mock.” In Book IV of Pantagruel, Rabelais compares medicine “to a combat and farce played by three personae: the patient, the doctor, and the illness.” In this image by Gustave Dore, Rabelais is portrayed as a scholar studying human figures impaled on pins as if they were butterflies (Lepidoptera). Besides the tome guiding his research, a second book represents a treatise on dissection, propped up against a row of specimen jars with fetuses floating in two of them.
Gustave Dore (1832-1883)
François Rabelais, " Oeuvres, contenant la vie de Gargantua et celle de Pantagruel"
J. Bry Aine, Paris
1854
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<p><a href="http://art.famsf.org/gustave-dore/rabelais-dissecting-society-and-writing-his-book-illustration-opposite-page-8-book">Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco</a></p>
Wood engraving; original dimensions, 190 x 123 mm
Still image
Vesalius 14
Medicine in art
Vesalius and the Invention of the Modern Body Conference, Saint Louis University
Katrin Hackenberg
February 27, 2015
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
Copyright 2015 Katrin Hackenberg
Digital Photography
Still Image
St. Louis, MO
Vesalius 18
Medicine in art
Vesalius and the Invention of the Modern Body Conference, Saint Louis University
Katrin Hackenberg
February 27, 2015
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
Copyright 2015 Katrin Hackenberg
Digital Photography
Still Image
St. Louis, MO
Vesalius 47
Medicine in art
Vesalius and the Invention of the Modern Body Conference, Saint Louis University
Katrin Hackenberg
February 27, 2015
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
Copyright 2015 Katrin Hackenberg
Digital Photography
Still Image
St. Louis, MO
Vesalius 49
Medicine in art
Vesalius and the Invention of the Modern Body Conference, Saint Louis University
Katrin Hackenberg
February 27, 2015
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
Copyright 2015 Katrin Hackenberg
Digital Photography
Still Image
St. Louis, MO