The “combined eye” of surgeon and artist: Evaluation of the artists who illustrated for Cushing, Dandy and Cairns

Medical illustration is an essential device for the teaching of anatomy, physiology and pathology. In surgery, illustration is more than a teaching aid and has been instrumental in the development the surgical art. This has required a close collaboration between surgeon and artist. This has been particularly evident in neurosurgery where surgeon and artist worked together with a “combined eye”, to help develop and disseminate surgical techniques. In this article we review the lineage of medical illustration in neurosurgery and three important partnerships between artist and neurosurgeon that have helped forge a lineage of surgical and artistic technique. Max Brödel and Harvey Cushing worked closely together at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, a collaboration which led to the opening of the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine. Brödel trained two talented artists, Hager Padget and Audrey Arnott, who worked for Walter Dandy and Hugh Cairns respectively. The techniques used in these collaborations between artist and surgeon were inspired by the art of Da Vinci, and the work of the anatomist Vesalius and the artist Jan Stefan van Calcar in the 16th century. We discuss how the combined eye of artist and surgeon is an important aspect of art history and we consider whether the illustrations of Brödel, Padget and Arnott can be considered as works of art.