Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Art Flashes

  • Lorenzo Lotto: Portrait of a physician

    Giovanni Agostino della Torre was an eminent wealthy physician in the northern Italian town of Bergamo. Believed to have been 61 years old when his portrait was painted, he died in 1535 at 81, then presumably no longer in active medical practice. In this painting, now at the National Gallery in London, the doctor is…

  • Giulio Clovio: Miniaturist and manuscript illuminator

    For much of his career, Giorgio Giulio Clovio, the greatest miniaturist and manuscript illuminator of his time, was pursued by ill luck. Born in Croatia in 1498 and first working in Venice, he went to seek his fortune in the service of the King of Hungary. But unfortunately the King was defeated and killed by…

  • The Fountain of Youth

    But O that I were young againAnd held her in my arms.—Yeats Since time immemorial, people in most countries of the world have looked for remedies to repair the ravages of time and make them young again. This has given rise to many tales about miraculous springs of water they could drink or bathe in…

  • Fra Bartolommeo

    Fra Bartolommeo (1472–1517), also known as Baccio della Porta, was a Florentine Renaissance painter and Dominican friar, active in Florence, Venice, and Rome. His work being largely religious in nature, his paintings Madonna and Child and Girolamo Savanarola exemplify the style of this largely influential Renaissance painter. The following is a short excerpt describing his…

  • The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David

    This famous painting shows the death of the radical politician of the French Revolution, Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793). Suffering from a chronic skin disease, perhaps dermatitis herpetiformis, he was soaking himself in a medicinal bath when stabbed to death by Charlotte Corday. He may have contracted the disease while hiding in the sewers for safety. It…

  • Piero di Cosimo

    Piero di Cosimo was a highly eccentric Florentine painter (ca. 1461-1521) whose best known paintings are quite idiosyncratic. His mythological paintings exhibit a bizarre style, many filled with fantastic humans and animals. . . . it appeared that he had lived the life of a brute rather than a man, as he had kept himself…

  • Frida Kahlo

    Now recognized as one of the great painters of the 20th century, Frida Kahlo’s life had been one of suffering and pain. Born in Mexico, she had polio at age six, leaving her with a contracted left leg. At the age of 20 she had a serious bus accident that fractured her spinal column, clavicle, ribs,…

  • Cennino d’Andrea Cennini (ca. 1370–1437)

    The name of Cennino Cennini is remembered not for his pictures, which have mostly perished, but for writing a treatise for artists, Il libro dell’arte. Born near Florence, he was apprenticed for 12 years to Agnolo Gaddi, a follower of Giotto. After his master’s death he went to Padua, married a lady of good position,…

  • Quentin Massys – The Ugly Duchess

    Flemish artist Quentin Massys (1465–1523) was born in Louvain and worked in Antwerp, where he painted many exquisite works of art. In 1513, he painted the portrait of An Old Woman, popularly known as The Ugly Duchess. Perhaps the best known of his works, it may be a portrait of Margaret, countess of Tyrol and…

  • Lavinia Fontana – Ambras syndrome

    Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man . . .Genesis 27:11 The Ambras syndrome is a rare genetic disorder characterized by an excessive growth of hair over the whole body—especially the face, ears, arms, shoulders, back, and legs—and sometimes accompanied by an overgrowth of the gums. Caused by a defect in one of the…