Art in hospitals

Abstract

This article deals upon the beneficial effects of hospitals - if well situated and rich in beauty and works of art - on the relief from stress and disease in their patients: a matter of facts that has been acknowledged even in Greece since ancient times. It first focuses on five hospitals mostly founded and run by religious authorities in Italy and in Europe in the Middle Age and in Renaissance and Baroque times, so well endowed in buildings of architectural value and in frescos and paintings by famous artists that they have been presently turned into museums. More modern theories dealing with the enhancing of the hospitals buildings of the future, though, are rather focusing on the shift from the commissioning of works of art to the favoring of a more friendly architectural design of the hospital itself, to its environmental setting into the green, to the availability of meeting spaces... A few examples of exceptionally beautiful new hospitals designed by famous architects - Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano... - and worth to be considered «world heritage», are also shown.