Painted Science, Gerard Pasterkamp, de Vrije Uitgevers, 210 pages, 24.95 euros (paperback) or 43.95 euros (hardcover). See also: paintedscience.com
to order
Gerard Pasterkamp, professor of experimental cardiology UMCU, is not only a doctor/scientist, but also a lover of realistic art.
When he went looking for books that brought together science and painting a few years ago, he couldn’t find them. That’s why he decided to collect images of works of art himself about discoveries that changed the world. He now presents the result of that search in a book: Painted Science, which is available in both English and Dutch. Based on two hundred works of art, Pasterkamp tells something about the historical value of the innovation depicted and about the work of art itself for each invention or discovery. Many of those paintings obviously relate to medical history. For example, Pasterkamp included many images of famous physicians, whether or not painted from life, such as Hippocrates, Edward Jenner (inventor of vaccination) and Henry Bigelow, who in 1846 gave a now famous demonstration of the anesthetic effect of ether. Some images will be familiar to the reader (Louis Pasteur in his lab, for example), others you may have never seen before, such as the fresco showing Hippocrates and Galen standing together, while in reality they were separated by centuries.
