Introduction

Abstract

The desire to rejoin dismembered portions of the body appears recorded in holy legends as early as at the onset of the Middle Ages. Saint Eligius of Noyon (590 A. D.) is often depicted with the hind limb of a horse at his side, as he is said to have successfully replanted all four limbs of a horse (Eis 1956). There is also an account of Saint Hippolytus restoring the leg of an oxcart driver who had suffered the misfortune of losing his limb through a stroke of lightening. Yet another, similar case is cited within the Legenda Aurea: in the thirteenth century Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian are reported to have transplanted the leg of an unfortunate Moor to the stump site of a maimed Christian (Fichtner 1968). Interestingly, different representations of this very same replantation procedure can be viewed within three paintings. The Swabian masterpiece “Schnaiter Altar” (ca. 1500 A. D., Landesmuseum, Stuttgart) clearly portrays a proximal above-knee attempt, while the Spanish painter Fernando del Rincón (1600 A. D., Prado, Madrid) chose to present the situation as a distal above-knee procedure. A third depiction, produced by the Dutch artist Ambroise Franken, illustrates the leg being rejoined below the knee (1600 A. D., Königliches Museum, Antwerp).