Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Mona Lisa

  • Diagnosing Mona Lisa

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Mona Lisa looks as if she has just been sick, or is about to be.”– Noel Coward Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was a many-talented genius of the Italian Renaissance. He was a painter, anatomist, engineer, and inventor. One of his best known paintings, a portrait of a noblewoman, is called the Mona…

  • The Girl with a Pearl Earring—A vanitas?

    James LindesayLeicester, United Kingdom It is a truism that you only have one opportunity to see a picture for the first time. However, in our image-saturated age, by the time you get to see a famous painting in the flesh (so to speak) you will have been so primed with reproductions, commentaries, and received opinions…

  • Bread of life and death

    Juliet HubbellLittleton, Colorado, United States One of the world’s greatest masterpieces is often and mysteriously excluded from the common pilgrimages educated tourists make in their travels. While crowds will mill about the Mona Lisa in Paris or endure hours of air travel and difficult connections to see The Dying Gaul in Rome, very few take a…