Psolo2

Everyone had a chance to review the website (PRP 2009) yet?

So, let's get to discussin'. What's everyone thinking so far?

I suppose the first place to start would be the painting itself - what's it consist of? Lets see....

- All of the people in the painting are men - which points to male chauvinism (after all, the painting was created in 1875).

- They're performing surgery, but none of the men have gloves on and they all have blood on their fingers (obviously this is before the discovery of AIDS). In addition, the tools that they're using are rather primitive compared to modern ones.

- The surgery is taking place in an operating theater, so there are people observing the surgery taking place.

- This painting was created in 1875, after the advent of anesthesia (October 16th, 1846 - Ether Day).


Psolo2

pahka0709

before the discovery of aids?? haha try before aids.. I am pretty sure AIDS only came to be about thirty years ago?? HIV started deep in Africa.. it hasn't always been here.

Psolo2

Hey, leave my Africa alone.

I'll concede on the "haha try before aids..." point though.

nychica

i thought u were going to dc

francophile23

One thing that caught my attention is that we never see the patient's face. We see him at his most exposed (literally-- guts, skin, everything on display). Yet, we can't see any identifying features. We can't even determine the gender of the patient. There's an an anonymity about it.

Also, there's just one woman in the painting. She's the only one present at the surgery who shows any kind of disgust or uneasiness about being in the presence of an unconscious, "opened" person.

Psolo2

Yeah, that's an excellent point.

Nychica - Who, me?

xenon_001

I loved how the art history prof and also my discussion leader seemed to want to characterize Alice "The Walmart Lady" Walton as a sort of modern-day Tamerlane, pillaging the cities of the civilized world to bring back cultural artifacts to her Samarkand in the Ozarks.