Prometheus and the Liver through Art and Medicine

Julia van Rosmalen specialized in the iconography of medieval art at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She worked as a Voluntary Research Fellow at the Catholic University Leuven. She has conducted this work as part of the Prometheus Project under Professor Thomas van Gulik at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers. Merel van Gulik studied classics and Italian language and culture at the University of Amsterdam. Belle van Rosmalen is a PhD candidate at the Department of Surgery at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers, University of Amsterdam. Thomas van Gulik is emeritus Professor of Surgery at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers, University of Amsterdam.

Introduction
The Prometheus myth
The depiction of Prometheus in classical antiquity
The liver according to the ancient Greeks and the etruscans
The haruspex and Hepatoscopy
Prometheus in the Middle Ages
The liver in the in the Middle Ages, according to Galenus
Prometheus in the Renaissance
The liver in the renaissance as described by Reisch, Vesalius and Da Vinci
Prometheus in the Baroque
The wounds of christ and prometheus – two of a kind?
The liver in the Baroque, according to van der Spiegel, Glisson and Bidloo
Prometheus and modernity
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: or the modern Prometheus
The liver in the enlightenment
The 20th century Prometheus
Liver surgery and liver regeneration
Regeneration of the Hydra polyp
Acknowledgements
On the Authors
Image descriptions
Bibliography