Medical issues in Italian frescoes

Abstract

This chapter begins with the assertion that the most important thing missing in the modern patient-physician relationship is the humanistic approach, and there are many different ways to use the visual arts in medical humanities. Analyzing Italian fresco paintings from a medical point of view can give us information about the experience of patients and the situation and atmosphere of medical events such as birth or illness. Medical students can use Italian frescoes to practice their anatomical knowledge as well as knowledge of symptoms and diagnoses. Frescoes also depict disability and epidemics which connect art and medicine in many ways.