Gift for a doctor: 8 art prints for the practice (and for graduation)
Roberto Zampieri
The gift a doctor understands at first glance
The Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo
- Printed on handmade Amalfi paper, with deckled edges
- Beech wood frame assembled by hand
- Sheet 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in), 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in) framed
- Certificate of authenticity signed by the artisan
€209
Pay in 3 interest-free instalments with PayPal
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The most appreciated gift for a doctor is not yet another engraved pen or a mug with a stethoscope on it: it is something that stays in their practice and speaks about their profession. An art print with a story linked to medicine does exactly that. The doctor will see it every day, patients will notice it, and they will remember who gave it to them.
In this guide you will find 8 art prints to give a doctor, each chosen because it has a real connection with healing, the human body or science: a fresco that hides a brain, the archangel whose name means "God heals", an island in Rome where people have been cared for over two thousand years. Prices range from €115 to €210, and for each one we tell you which doctor and which occasion it is the right gift for.
How to choose the right gift for a doctor
Before looking at the prints, three questions.
What is the occasion? A thank-you after treatment, graduating from medical school, finishing a specialty, opening a practice, retiring after a lifetime on the wards. Further down you will find the right print for each one.
For the practice or for the home? In the practice, choose a work that speaks about the profession and reassures whoever walks in: the Creation of Adam, the School of Athens, the Tiber Island. For the doctor's home you can also choose a more personal subject, such as a Canaletto or a celestial map.
How much can you spend? Here is a detail few people know. In Italy, a doctor who works in a public hospital is a public employee and follows the civil service code of conduct (DPR 62/2013): they may only accept gifts of modest value, which the code sets as a guideline at €150, and many health authorities set an even lower limit. Many other countries have similar rules, so check before you buy. To thank a hospital doctor, we therefore suggest the prints below that threshold: the Tiber Island (€115) and the Feast of San Rocco (€132). For a doctor in private practice, or a friend or relative who is a doctor, the choice is yours.
The body and science
Three works for the doctor as a person of science: anatomy, the knowledge of the ancients, the method of observation.
1. The Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo
God's finger about to touch Adam's, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted between 1508 and 1512. For a doctor there is more: in 1990 the American physician Frank Lynn Meshberger published a study in JAMA pointing out that the red cloak surrounding God and the angels has the shape of a human brain in cross-section, complete with the brainstem and the pituitary gland. It is a hypothesis, but we know Michelangelo studied anatomy on corpses: as a young man, the prior of the hospital of Santo Spirito in Florence allowed him to dissect them. We have told the whole story in our article on the Creation of Adam.
Perfect for neurologists and neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, doctors who love art, and any practice that wants a work everyone recognises.
€209 · on Amalfi paper, 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in) framed
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Discover and buy the print2. The School of Athens, by Raphael
Plato and Aristotle at the centre, surrounded by the great thinkers of antiquity: Euclid bending over with his compass, Ptolemy holding the globe, Pythagoras with his book. Raphael painted the fresco between 1509 and 1511 in the Room of the Segnatura, in the Vatican. It is a portrait of knowledge handed down from master to pupil, just like medicine, which is still learned today at the patient's bedside, next to someone who knows more.
Perfect for a medical school graduation gift, a university professor, a head physician who has trained generations of residents, a group practice.
€210 · on Amalfi paper, 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in) framed
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Discover and buy the print3. The map of the Copernican System, by Andreas Cellarius
The Sun at the centre and the planets orbiting around it, surrounded by the signs of the zodiac: this is one of the plates of the Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas published in Amsterdam in 1660 by the cosmographer Andreas Cellarius. The link with medicine lies in its protagonist: Nicolaus Copernicus studied medicine at the University of Padua and practised as a physician for years, treating his uncle the bishop and the canons of Frombork, while observing the sky at night. A doctor who changed the way we look at the universe.
Perfect for doctors with a passion for science and astronomy, researchers, and modern practices, where its colours become the focal point of the room.
€206 · on Amalfi paper, 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in) framed
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Discover and buy the printHealing in faith and history
For centuries, healing was also a matter of faith. Three works for the doctor who sees the profession as a vocation.
4. The Archangel Raphael with Tobias, by Perugino
The name Raphael means "God heals" in Hebrew, and Christian tradition considers him the patron of doctors and pharmacists. In the biblical Book of Tobit he accompanies the young Tobias on his journey and teaches him to keep the gall of a fish: with that remedy, on his return, Tobias restores his blind father's sight. Perugino painted him around 1500 for an altarpiece in the Certosa di Pavia, now in the National Gallery in London: the angel holds the boy by the hand, and the boy holds the fish.
Perfect for ophthalmologists above all, pharmacists, doctors of faith, and a thank-you after a recovery.
€196 · on Amalfi paper, 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in) framed
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Discover and buy the print5. The Pool of Bethesda, Jerusalem, by David Roberts
In the Gospel of John, the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem was surrounded by five porches full of the sick, the blind and the lame, waiting for the water to be stirred so they could be healed. It is here that Jesus says to a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years: "Get up, take up your mat and walk". The Scottish painter David Roberts visited Jerusalem in 1839 and drew from it his famous views of the Holy Land, with warm afternoon light on the stones and small figures in the foreground.
Perfect for orthopaedic surgeons, rehabilitation physicians and physiotherapists, and doctors who love travel and the Middle East.
€189 · on Amalfi paper, 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in) framed
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Discover and buy the print6. The Doge Visits the Church and Scuola di San Rocco, by Canaletto
Saint Roch was a fourteenth-century pilgrim who, according to tradition, crossed Italy caring for plague victims until he fell ill himself. Venice, which has kept his body since 1485, venerated him as protector against the plague, and after the terrible epidemic of 1576 the Doge began going every year, on 16 August, to pay him homage. Canaletto painted the procession around 1735: the cortege in Campo San Rocco in front of the Scuola Grande, the confraternity that cared for the sick, with paintings displayed outdoors for the feast. The original is in the National Gallery in London.
Perfect for infectious disease specialists, public health doctors, doctors from Venice or in love with it, and a thank-you to a hospital doctor, because it stays below €150.
€132 · on Amalfi paper, 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in) framed
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Discover and buy the printPlaces of healing
Two views of places where people have been cared for over centuries. For the practice that wants an elegant landscape with a meaning.
7. The Tiber Island in Rome, 1685, by Gaspar van Wittel
It is perhaps the place most closely linked to medicine in all of Rome. In 293 BC, during an epidemic, the Romans sent a ship to Epidaurus, in Greece, to bring back the cult of Asclepius, the god of medicine. According to the ancient historians, on the way back the god's sacred serpent left the ship and swam to the island: his temple was built there, and from then on the sick came to seek healing. The island is still home to the Fatebenefratelli hospital, founded in 1584. Gaspar van Wittel, the Dutch painter the Romans called Vanvitelli, painted it in 1685 with the Tiber, the bridges and the houses on the water.
Perfect for doctors from Rome, family doctors, classic-style practices, and a thank-you to a hospital doctor: it is the most affordable print in this guide.
€115 · on Amalfi paper, 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in) framed
Pay in 3 interest-free instalments with PayPal
Discover and buy the print8. Greenwich Hospital, by Canaletto
The great white façade on the Thames, with boats and sails in the foreground: this is the Royal Hospital at Greenwich, founded in 1694 by Queen Mary II to shelter and care for sailors wounded or grown old in the service of the Navy, and designed by Christopher Wren, the architect of St Paul's Cathedral. Canaletto painted it during his years in London, around 1750. Proof that a hospital can also be a masterpiece of architecture.
Perfect for hospital doctors, medical directors, military doctors, those who studied or worked in England, and the waiting room of a clinic.
€204 · on Amalfi paper, 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in) framed
Pay in 3 interest-free instalments with PayPal
Discover and buy the printWhich one to choose: the quick guide
- To thank a hospital doctor: the Tiber Island (€115) or the Feast of San Rocco (€132), both below €150.
- For a family doctor: the Tiber Island (€115) or the Archangel Raphael with Tobias (€196).
- For the surgeon who operated on you: the Creation of Adam (€209), by the painter who studied anatomy on corpses.
- For a medical school graduation: the School of Athens (€210) or the Creation of Adam (€209).
- For the opening of a practice: Greenwich Hospital (€204) for the waiting room and the Creation of Adam behind the desk.
- For a doctor who loves science: the Copernican System (€206).
- For an ophthalmologist: the Archangel Raphael with Tobias (€196), the story of sight restored.
- For a rehabilitation physician or orthopaedic surgeon: the Pool of Bethesda (€189).
- For retirement after a life in hospital: Greenwich Hospital (€204), for the home, as a memento of many years on the wards.
Why it is not a poster
A gift for a doctor should live up to the person receiving it. That is why our prints are made the way they used to be.
Amalfi paper. Made only from cotton fibres, thick and soft to the touch, with the deckled edges of handmade paper: the oldest paper in Italy.
Handcrafted frame. In beech wood, cut and assembled by hand by our artisans: the print arrives ready to hang.
Embossed mark. Every print carries the Trizio Editore mark, blind-embossed into the Amalfi paper.
How to thank your doctor
A gift is the most concrete way, but not the only one, and it often works best together with the right words.
Write a few lines by hand. Many doctors keep their patients' cards for years. Tell them what changed thanks to their care, even in two sentences: it is worth more than any formula.
Choose the moment. Bring the gift when treatment is over, not during it: that makes it clear it is a thank-you, not a request for attention.
Think of the practice, not just the doctor. Other patients will also enjoy a print in the waiting room, and every time someone notices it, the doctor will tell them where it came from.
For a whole ward, give a group gift. To thank a team, nurses included, a print for the ward's common room is something everyone can share.
Quotes for the card
For a doctor, a line from the medical tradition written by hand is worth more than a greeting. Three ideas, with their true origin:
Ars longa, vita brevis, "art is long, life is short". It is the opening of the first of Hippocrates' Aphorisms, which continues: "opportunity fleeting, experiment perilous, judgement difficult". For Hippocrates, "art" meant medicine itself, which one never stops learning. Perfect for a graduation, with the School of Athens.
"Where there is love of mankind, there is also love of the art": this too comes from the Hippocratic writings, from the Precepts. Ideal to thank a doctor who treated you with humanity.
Primum non nocere, "first, do no harm". Note: in this Latin form it is not by Hippocrates, but a maxim of the medical tradition. It echoes a passage from the Hippocratic Epidemics: "to help, or at least to do no harm". Lovely for someone opening their own practice.
Frequently asked questions
What are some original gifts for doctors?
An original gift is one that speaks about their profession without being a gadget: an art print linked to medicine, such as the Creation of Adam, in which a doctor recognised the shape of a brain, or the Tiber Island, where people in Rome have been cared for over two thousand years. It stays in the practice for a whole career.
What can I give a doctor to say thank you?
A gift that lasts, with a handwritten card. If the doctor works in a public hospital, choose something of modest value: in Italy the code of conduct sets a guideline of €150, for example the Tiber Island (€115) or Canaletto's Feast of San Rocco (€132).
Can you give gifts to a hospital doctor?
Yes, but only of modest value. In Italy the code of conduct for public employees (DPR 62/2013) allows customary courtesy gifts up to a guideline value of €150, and individual health authorities can set a lower limit. If in doubt, check the hospital's own rules.
What can I give a family doctor?
Something for the practice, where they see patients every day: the Tiber Island, the place in Rome most closely linked to medicine, or the Archangel Raphael with Tobias, whose name means "God heals".
What can I give a surgeon?
Michelangelo's Creation of Adam is the most fitting gift: the artist studied anatomy on corpses, and a doctor recognised a human brain in the cloak around God. For a surgeon, it is a work that speaks their language.
What should I give for a medical school graduation?
A work that will accompany the new doctor from their first clinic onwards: Raphael's School of Athens, a symbol of knowledge passed from master to pupil, or the Creation of Adam. On the card you can write Ars longa, vita brevis.
Are these gifts suitable for a female or male doctor?
Yes: the prints in this guide are chosen for the profession, not for gender. The specialty and the style of the practice matter more.
How much do the prints in this guide cost?
From €115 for the Tiber Island to €210 for the School of Athens. All are on handmade Amalfi paper, with a beech wood frame.
Do the prints come with a frame?
Yes: they arrive with a handmade beech wood frame, ready to hang.
How are they shipped?
By express courier: shipping is tracked and insured, and the print travels in reinforced packaging. When it ships you receive the tracking code by email to follow the parcel until delivery.
Can I have a print in a different size or with another frame?
Yes, write to us on WhatsApp at +39 352 049 2129 or at info@trizioeditore.it and we will choose size and frame together, even to furnish several rooms of a practice or clinic.
Can I pay in instalments?
Yes, with PayPal you can pay in 3 interest-free instalments.
If the doctor you have in mind also loves history or art, you will find more ideas in our guides to the gift for a history lover and the gift for an art lover.
Sistine Chapel · 1508-1512
The Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo
Handmade Amalfi paper · Handmade beech wood frame · €209
Pay in 3 interest-free instalments with PayPal
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