ABSTRACT
Sick, ailing, and wounded bodies were represented visually in a variety of forms, genres, and contexts in the early modern period. Most diseases that medical practitioners would encounter in their practice could not be diagnosed from their visible symptoms, and the few that did change the patient’s appearance in a characteristic manner were usually too well known to call for an illustration. In a very different context, practical, surgical treatises, and manuals, occasionally offered abstract, idealized images of men with all kinds of wounds inflicted by different kinds of weapons. Skin changes were thus closely associated with notions of impurity. Depicting someone with morbid skin changes meant signifying the presence of impurities inside the body, which could also reflect a state of internal, spiritual impurity.
