General Hospital

Completed with the construction of LAC+USC General Hospital in 1933, twelve sculptures designed by Italian-American artist Salvatore C. Scarpitta were placed on the building, with nine enrobed figures above the main entrance and three classically robed figures in window niches. Six statues represent important innovators and researchers in medical science and together symbolize nearly 2,500 years of Western medical history. Scarpitta, born in Palermo, Italy, in 1887 and immigrating to the United States in 1910, trained at the Royal Italian Academy and worked primarily as a sculptor. In Los Angeles, he also created three panels above the entrance to the Los Angeles Stock Exchange, earning a prize from the American Institute of Architects, and produced other local works at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, the Church of the Sacred Blood, and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. The identified medical figures are Louis Pasteur, a French chemist and microbiologist remembered for breakthroughs in the causes and prevention of disease; Andreas Vesalius, a Flemish anatomist and author of De humani corporis fabrica, often called the founder of modern human anatomy; William Harvey, the English physician who fully described systemic circulation and the heart’s pumping of blood; Hippocrates of Kos, the ancient Greek physician regarded as the father of Western medicine; Aelius Galenus, the Roman physician, surgeon, and philosopher who contributed greatly to anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology; and John Hunter, the Scottish surgeon who early advocated careful observation and scientific method in medicine. An angel, possibly representing Raphael, spreads her wings to shelter the weak and needy, reflecting the hospital’s mission to care for those unable to afford treatment and to promote the well-being of Los Angeles County residents.

Los Angeles, California · United States