Though many art and medicine courses emphasize honing students’ observational skills, roles of art in health professions ethics education can be much richer, illuminating critical nuances about patients’ vulnerabilities and needs. Ethics is not just about responding to moral questions and trying to resolve dilemmas. It’s also about the human project of discerning value. This issue considers how portraiture introduces innovative strategies for perceiving ethical and aesthetic value and motivates deeper and fuller understanding of patients’, clinicians’, and others’ health care experiences.