The English Virtuoso: Art, Medicine and Antiquarianism in the Age of Empiricism

Abstract

This fascinating and eminently readable book is a study of the role of the medical profession in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in art collecting and appreciation. Although the book deals with the antiquarian side of the doctor's role and is written by a professor of art history, it also illuminates the important role of art in medicine at the time of the Restoration and the founding of the Royal Society. The “English Virtuoso” can be seen, as described fully in the introduction, as a term of ridicule for those men who collected objects but had no concept of the real world. However, Samuel Johnson later described a virtuoso as “a man skilled in antique or natural curiosities; a man studious of painting, statuary or architecture” (7), many of whom at this time happened to be in the medical profession or members of the Royal Society. The obvious area of similarity is in anatomical studies and drawings and the collection of various anatomical objects by doctors traveling in Europe and especially in Italy which is described in this book. An example was the Anatomical Tables acquired by John Evelyn in Padua and donated to the Royal Society, which are now displayed at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Similar tables are also held by the Royal College of Physicians in London.