Artist:	Salvatore C. Scarpitta
Date:	1934
District:	First Supervisorial District
Location:	LAC+USC Medical Center General Hospital 1200 North State Street Los Angeles, CA 90033
Department:	Health Services

Placed high above the towering main entrance, nine enrobed figures stand vigil and greet visitors to LAC+USC General Hospital and half-way up the building, three classically robed figures stand atop columns in window niches. Completed concurrently with the building’s construction in 1933, these 12 sculptures were designed by Italian-American artist Salvatore C. Scarpitta. Six of the statues represent important medical science innovators and researchers, and together, they symbolize nearly 2,500 years of Western medical science history.

On the viewer’s left stand Louis Pasteur (1822-1895, French microbiologist who invented pasteurization), Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564, Belgian physician and author of a seminal book on human anatomy), and William Harvey (1578-1657, English doctor who was the first to correctly describe the circulatory system). In the grouping on the viewer’s right we see Hippocrates (460-370 BC, Greek physician considered one of the founders of medical science), Galen (129-200 AD, Greek physician who wrote extensively about human anatomy), and John Hunter (1728-1793, Scottish surgeon famous for his advocacy of rigorous scientific experimentation). Each of these six sculptures has distinct facial features and holds a slightly different pose. In the center group are three allegorical statues: an elderly man and a woman holding a child stand on either side of a benevolent angel whose wings are outstretched and whose hands are folded in prayer.

About the Artist: Salvatore Cartaino Scarpitta (1887-1948) was born in Palermo, Italy and immigrated to the United States in 1910. He worked primarily as a sculptor and received training at the Royal Italian Academy. During Benito Mussolini’s era of power in the 1930s Scarpitta executed a bust of the Italian dictator to be displayed in Rome and a copy for display in the Italian Embassy in Washington D.C. While living in Los Angeles, Scarpitta also sculpted three panels above the entrance to the Los Angeles Stock Exchange for which he received a prize from the American Institute of Architects. His other local works include sculptures at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, the Church of the Sacred Blood and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.