CHRIST as APOTHECARY of the SOUL* CHARLES H. LAWALL Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, Philadelphia, Penns~lrania
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T IS NOT generally known by pharmacists in America that their calling has been idealized to such an extent as to be utilized in paintings or other forms of pictorial art in which the Savior is represented as a dispensing pharmacist, dispensing not material drugs but remedies for the healing of sick souls. The title "Seelen-Apotheker" or "Apothecary of the Soul" is frequently used as a title for paintings dealing with this motif. This theme began to occupy the attention of artists some time during the late sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries and continued
* The illustrations accompanying this article have been taken from the "Illustrierter Apolheker Kalender" of Berlin, and full permission has been granted the author to use them in this manner.
well into the eighteenth century. I t was especially prevalent in Germany where t h e largest number of these .paintings is to be found. The total number of oil paintings in which this motif has been utilized is more than two-score. Besides the paintings the theme has heen employed in a pen sketch, a tapestry, a stained glass window, a copper-plate engraving, and a woodcut. The majority of these pictures are in museums or art galleries; some of them are in churches or chapels; others are in cloisters; a few are hanging in pharmacies; several are in private collections. It was not until the close of the nineteenth century that the subject began to attract attention in the literature of pharmacy, when the earliest of these paintings to be discovered and discussed was found in a church
FIGURE
OIL PAINTING IN
THE
in Germany (see Figure 2). This painting was rescued from oblivion in the last decade of the nineteenth century by M. W. L. Schreiber of Potsdam, who found it in a neglected condition, and had it cleaned, restored, and photographed. One of these paintings, formerly in the collection of Jo Mayer of Wiesbaden, Germany, is now owned by E. R. Squibb & Sons, who have acquired one of the world's greatest collections of pharmaceutical antiques, a large number of which, including this painting, were exhibited a t the World's Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago in connection with the professional exhibit of this renowned firm. The photograph of this particular painting is shown in Figure 7. The treatment of the subject is typical of the school of painters of Southern Bavaria in that the right hand of Christ is raised above the shoulder, while the left hand holds the dispensing balance, underneath which is the word, Gerechtigkeit (justice). Standing on the table immediately before the figure of Christ is a chalice above which floats a luminous sphere symbolizing the "Host." The chalice bears the word, Glaube (faith). On the table or counter, a t the right, EVANGELICAL REFORMED is seen a blossoming branch, with the designation, Tag und Nacht (dav , , and nizht). - . In the left lower center is a root above which is the designation, Kreuzwurzel (cross-root). Scattered about the table are typical dispensing jars, each labeled with some particular virtue or attribute of Christianity. On the wall back of the figure of Christ, both a t the right and a t the left and also on the front of the counter, are quotations from Christ's sayings: "Call uponme.in't(me of need and I will hear thee." "Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." "Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give thee rest."
In Figure 3 we find a photograph of another oil painting of the same school of artists. This painting, which is framed in rococo style, is attributed to the late seventeenth century and is now in the cloister and school institute a t Gnadenthal near Ingoldstadt in Bavaria, Germany. The labels and mottoes in this picture are pracfically illegible. A third example in the same style of treatment is shown in Figure 5, which is a photograph of a pen sketch of the subject, exhibited in the Swiss National Museum a t Ziirich, Switzerland. The blurred script makes the labels and quotations on this illustration difficult to decipher. In Figure 2 we find a photograph of an oil painting of the subject or theme in a distinctly different s t y l e t h a t of the Nuremberg-Baden school of artists. Here the figure of the Savior is shown with the balance in the left hand, but
with the right hand in the act of withdrawing a portion of drufi from one of the drug containers on the counter. in this case the one labeled, I
