MAA History MAA History Medical Art as a profession is relatively young, it evolved in this, the 20th century. However, the use of artists to produce pictures as a means of communicating medical knowledge has a long history and can be seen in the paintings, inscriptions and sculptures of Ancient Egypt and in the early medical lore of India, China, Greece and Arabia. Pictures were used as an aid to expand theories on medical and other subjects for reasons that still hold good today.
Illustrations overcome the limitation of words and can transcend language barriers.
Through the centuries, artists have worked with men of medicine in times of stable knowledge and times of change. Their endeavours to improve their knowledge of medical subjects by close co-operation with medical colleagues, making full use of suitable techniques and developing reproduction technology, have contributed greatly to the literature on medicine, surgery and allied subjects. They laid the foundations which have influenced the medical artists of today. At the beginning of the 20th century a small number of medical artists were employed in a freelance capacity by individual medical consultants, hospitals and medical schools. Most of them had come into this branch of illustration by accident, rather than design.