The artful surgeon | |
Art and medicine. Reminiscences and reflections of a retiring surgeon. Desmond O'Shaughnessy. Melbourne: Desmond O'Shaughnessy 1999 (x+87 pp.). ISBN: 0 95869 251 3. |
Charming, idiosyncratic, informative,
not averse to drawing a long bow; his little book is a treasure. The author has either extended a previously researched and well received paper or, less likely, he offers a catalogue raisonné of a private art collection. Desmond O'Shaughnessy, an artist of merit in his own right, includes some of his pencil drawings; with a self-portrait of striking merit, even if betraying himself as somewhat hesitant. He has no need to be hesitant about the worth of his opus. It will be welcomed by doctors keen about their profession, about art or about Desmond O'Shaughnessy. The author is a Melbourne surgeon who has a list of hospital training posts impressive and enviable, including the London Hospital for Sick Children, the Nuffield, Oxford, and hospitals in Munich and Salzburg. There is much about art and many medical details are woven into the narrative. He describes convincingly the change in the work of artists when they developed cataracts. A discussion of Velazquez is shoe-horned into the story because of his iconic painting (Las Meniñas), depicting achondroplastic dwarfs. O'Shaughnessy on El Greco misses the opportunity to mention possible Marfan's syndrome in some subjects. For novice painters, here is a delightful short tour orienting them in pictorial art across the ages. He offers definitions and examples, showcases great painters and their works and "shares" his personal associations. Some of his confident assertions, which no doubt he would gallantly defend, are challenging; for instance, the categorical assertion that the English Reformation had a baleful effect on British art. Dr O'Shaughnessy deserves congratulations for his drive in having the book privately printed, and for the courteous and friendly discursive viewing of his personal art collection. Many doctors appreciate art, some practise it and some do so very well. Most doctors are interested in art to some degree. O'Shaughnessy, with a dash of irony, evidences this "by the differences in the quality of the pictures hanging in their waiting rooms and surgeries". Have you looked lately on what you have hanging on the walls in your rooms? Might be very revealing! Ben Haneman
|