The Gross Clinic

This painting always reminds me of how little time has passed since the times when the germ theory of disease and sterilization of instruments and hands were unknown. The doctors would casually operate in their frock coats and go from patient to patient without a clue about the damage they might be doing (e.g. puerperal fever in the maternity wards and Semmelweis' work to trace the cause). I also never realized it was an American painting done in Philadelphia (an art history student I was not).