Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Self Portrait

  • Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man, a self portrait?

    JMS PearceHull, England Amongst Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452–1519) unrivalled masterpieces are the Mona Lisa (c. 1503), The Last Supper (c. 1495–1498), Salvator Mundi (c. 1499–1510), and the Vitruvian Man (c. 1490). All have been subject to countless commentaries and learned descriptions.1,2 Just as the fictional works of novelists often include (albeit subconsciously) aspects of their…

  • Some subjects are given

    Michael SalcmanBaltimore, Maryland, United States Some subjects are given to the authorsof poems and songs, of mechanical puzzlesand lives, given over and over like a spiking fever in an old TB wardor the low level irritation of a cancerraising its hand in a bone — here I am it says, conversant with any private language…

  • The disease you do not see

    Aaron BerkowitzNew York, New York, USA You look normal, good even. Statistically you are bigger, stronger than billions of people alive (and those who have died). You learn to repeat mantras to affirm your being. There is power in prayer when action is impossible. You cry more too, beg. You force yourself to write, to…