[European paintings entitled "Jesus Christ as Pharmacist" in the Middle Ages and later].
Ninety-eight pictures painted in the Middle Ages and later entitled "Christ as Pharmacist" are shown in a little German book (W. H. Hein, Christus als Apotheker, Govi-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1974). In the three paintings shown here, Christ appears as a pharmacist standing behind a pharmacy table used to compound medicine, and he has a medicinal balance in his left hand. The Christian terms, such as faith, love, and hope, and the drug's name are written on each of the drug vase labels. It seems that the purpose of displaying these paintings in a pharmacy was both to propagate Christianity to the poor who bought medicine at their family pharmacy and to win their respect for the pharmacist.
Okuda
J
J
Faculty of Pharmacy, Meijo University, Yagotoyama, Tempaku-ku, Nagoya 468-8503.
D001878:Books, Illustrated / Q000266:history*; D005858:Germany; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049691:History, Medieval; D008512:Medicine in the Arts; D010151:Paintings / Q000266:history*; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000266:history*; D012068:Religion and Medicine