Are we the ones really preserving art through conservation or is it a mutual relationship where art preserves us as well? The concept of displaying art in hospitals may seem to be a modern idea, but humanists truthfully believed that art and beauty possessed intrinsic healing powers for both the body and the soul.

A great example is the oval depicting St. John healing victims of the plague painted for the Hospital of San Giovanni di Dio in Florence by Violante Ferroni, a woman who bent all rules at a time when large scale public commissions were reserved for men.