Georg Bartisch’s Ophthalmodouleia and His Theory of Painting and Drawing

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines how the Dresden artist and oculist Georg Bartisch (1535–ca. 1607) transformed theoretical discussions around painting and drawing, insofar as he connected the hand and mind of the artist with those of the surgeon. Bartisch articulated his theories about the links between painting and drawing, on the one hand, and surgical prowess, on the other, in a manuscript on lithotomy entitled Kunstbuch (1575), and in another tract entitled Ophthalmodouleia, das ist Augendienst (1583) which deals with ailments or wounds of the eye and their treatment. Through an analysis of the Ophthalmodouleia’s text and images alongside comparative references to the Kunstbuch and other sixteenth-century sources – from vernacular ophthalmology tracts to observationes and Kunstbücher – this paper uncovers Bartisch’s theory that expertise in painting and drawing guarantees physical and mental dexterity in surgery.