Recently, Hugo Naranjo Arvelo, a distinguished physician, published a book titled ART AND SKIN, which offered a special witness -as valuable- so their findings in the study of some works of art -especially paintings and sculptures- where it is reflected or could be presumed the presence of skin lesions.
The search for such works and the result of medical and artistic inquiry -or vice versa, since the order of the ratings not alter the product- led Dr. Naranjo to explore, from their particular perspective, another facet of the relationship between medicine and art.
The result is this new book: ART AND MEDICINE, where, after a fruitful inquiry, the author has been able to assemble a set of paintings which subjects or motivations are associated, or certainly can be associated to different situations or manifestations of medical practice. However, it must be understood that, with his book, Dr. Naranjo has not sought to publicize simply works of art. The objectives of this qualified physician dedicated to culture go much further, since not been alien to the paints -or other artistic expressions- as ways of transmitting culture and enrichment of society, which he has sought, and obtained, it is to highlight the close relationship that, according to his perception, can be found between painting and some diseases and medicine, in a similar way he did in his previous book, ART AND SKIN.
That assembly between the selected painters and their works, through the diseases described -from pediatric to emergency medicine- to materialize the idea that Dr. Naranjo has had to show how certain paintings have been used to reveal defects, illness, situations or disorders, which probably could otherwise not be seen or even imagined by painting beholder.
It could be evident that some might find limitations or inadequacies in the content and scope of this book. In such a way, it can be cited other works or other painters who quite properly fit in a work of this nature, such as the painting of Justo de Gante showing Federico de Montefeltro, one of the most successful condottieri of the Italian Renaissance, whose left hand swelling of the metacarpophalangeal joints, in the same way as it appears in the anonymous painting the Temptation of St. Anthony, or in the portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam, by Quentin Metsys, some portraits made by Rembrandt, not to mention the Rubens' painting The Three Graces, wherein said deformation appears to affect the hand of the "Grace" on the far left.
Comments or criticisms of this kind are entirely as valid as unquestionable. But it is understood and accepted that this work reflects a very personal and therefore unobjectionable vision of Dr. Naranjo on the theme chosen by him to make his book. It is as if the doctor had decided to open the doors of his house to show us the intimacy of its environment and thus the works of art that -figuratively- help establish his humanistic pattern of life.
From this point of view, we just hope that both art lovers and doctors generally have the ability to
access this book and appreciate the work of Dr. Naranjo. If so, he will have achieved his real goal.
Caracas, October 2016
Heriberto A. Gómez
The search for such works and the result of medical and artistic inquiry -or vice versa, since the order of the ratings not alter the product- led Dr. Naranjo to explore, from their particular perspective, another facet of the relationship between medicine and art.
The result is this new book: ART AND MEDICINE, where, after a fruitful inquiry, the author has been able to assemble a set of paintings which subjects or motivations are associated, or certainly can be associated to different situations or manifestations of medical practice. However, it must be understood that, with his book, Dr. Naranjo has not sought to publicize simply works of art. The objectives of this qualified physician dedicated to culture go much further, since not been alien to the paints -or other artistic expressions- as ways of transmitting culture and enrichment of society, which he has sought, and obtained, it is to highlight the close relationship that, according to his perception, can be found between painting and some diseases and medicine, in a similar way he did in his previous book, ART AND SKIN.
That assembly between the selected painters and their works, through the diseases described -from pediatric to emergency medicine- to materialize the idea that Dr. Naranjo has had to show how certain paintings have been used to reveal defects, illness, situations or disorders, which probably could otherwise not be seen or even imagined by painting beholder.
It could be evident that some might find limitations or inadequacies in the content and scope of this book. In such a way, it can be cited other works or other painters who quite properly fit in a work of this nature, such as the painting of Justo de Gante showing Federico de Montefeltro, one of the most successful condottieri of the Italian Renaissance, whose left hand swelling of the metacarpophalangeal joints, in the same way as it appears in the anonymous painting the Temptation of St. Anthony, or in the portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam, by Quentin Metsys, some portraits made by Rembrandt, not to mention the Rubens' painting The Three Graces, wherein said deformation appears to affect the hand of the "Grace" on the far left.
Comments or criticisms of this kind are entirely as valid as unquestionable. But it is understood and accepted that this work reflects a very personal and therefore unobjectionable vision of Dr. Naranjo on the theme chosen by him to make his book. It is as if the doctor had decided to open the doors of his house to show us the intimacy of its environment and thus the works of art that -figuratively- help establish his humanistic pattern of life.
From this point of view, we just hope that both art lovers and doctors generally have the ability to
access this book and appreciate the work of Dr. Naranjo. If so, he will have achieved his real goal.
Caracas, October 2016
Heriberto A. Gómez
