On the right, a pair of hands emerge from the sun to proffer a rod of Asclepius, a snake wrapped round a staff, to a reclining woman.
The symbolism is very rich. The sun indicates Apollo, who was also god of healing. Asclepius's snake is usually shown in a stiff formal pose but here it is writhing and the woman is patting its head - all a bit odd.
On the left-hand doorway, a bunsen burner heats a retort, with a lot of test tubes and scales, just like the stinks lab at school. An open book has a quotation from the 19th century American reformer, abolitionist and educationalist Horace Mann. A hand turns the page, and it is easy to miss that the hand emerges from a cloud and is therefore, presumably, God's.
1 comment:
Interesting! Both my husband and I worked in London hospitals years ago, but I have never heard of the National Hospital for Neurology. I thought that perhaps the hospital has been built _since_ we left London, but no.... the low relief sculpture is from the 1930s.
Actually the sculptures look wonderful but the cream brick building looks a bit ordinary.
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