Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: San Zeno Altarpiece

  • Mantegna’s coral aorta

    At first sight this coral in Andrea Mantegna’s painting looks like an abdominal aorta, the Superior Mesenteric Artery arising at its upper end, other branches from lower down. Corals are the products of minute marine sack-like organisms that live in compact colonies or reefs, secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton, and may grow…