Tag Archives: Uterus

“Can you define the word ‘woman’?”

April 22, 2022

Jayant Radhakrishnan Darien, Illinois, United States   Venus is considered to be the epitome of feminine beauty in the western world. Does it matter that she has no arms? Venus de Milo. Louvre Museum. Photo by Tupungato on Dreamstime. “The more you know the more you realize you don’t know.” — Aristotle (384 BCE-322 BCE) […]

The dream of the uterus

August 10, 2020

F. Gonzalez-Crussi  Chicago, Illinois, United States   Front page of the book that started the debate on “the thinking uterus” at the University of Bologna: Genial days of the dialectic of women, reduced to its true principle, etc. Naples, 1763. More than one-half century ago, it was my duty to examine and describe, day in […]

A history of blood: hysteria, taboos, and evil

January 30, 2020

Danielle Dalechek Norfolk, Virginia, United States   The witch no. 1. Joseph E Baker. c1892. Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication. “Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood?” — Carl Jung   Historically, the opposite of purity was often viewed and represented […]

Did Salvador Dali follow the prolactin discovery in his painting of the fountain of milk?

November 12, 2019

Michael Yafi Houston, Texas, United States   Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Artists Rights Society © 2019 The Fountain of Milk Spreading Itself Uselessly on Three Shoes by Salvador Dali remains one of his most enigmatic works. It shows a nude woman on a pedestal, milk flowing from her breasts, while an emaciated man is […]

The curious tale of Leonardo Da Vinci and the spherical uterus

July 27, 2017

John Massie Parkville, Victoria, Australia   Drawing of Pregnant Uterus by Leonardo da Vinci (c 1512) Leonardo Da Vinci had one of the greatest minds in history. Accomplished in so many fields of both the arts and science, he challenged contemporary thinking, and was one of the early Renaissance artists to use dissection of corpses […]

Art and the myth of the “wandering womb”

January 24, 2017

Laurinda Dixon New York, United States   The Doctor’s Visit, 1663 Jan Steen Taft Museum of Art Seventeenth-century Dutch paintings bearing modern titles such as “The Doctor’s Visit” or “The Lovesick Maiden” are common.1 They were once produced in great numbers and, with some variations, illustrate the same thing. The example by Jan Steen in […]