Art list

Paintings

Paintings and the Doctor

Life of Painters

Fidelity — Briton Rivière

Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt What caught my attention? At first I see a bleak prison cell. A young man sits hunched over on a chair, his face buried in his hand. His other arm is supported in a sling. The barred window, the bare walls and even the rough drawing of a gallows behind him make the situation feel hopeless. And then I notice the dog. It stands beside him, watching him closely, its head resting gently against his knee. The dog does not understand laws, judges or punis…

Christina’s World — Andrew Wyeth

Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt What caught my attention? This painting affects me deeply. At first I see a beautiful, almost empty landscape. Then I notice her. There she is, lying in the grass. And the house is still so far away. My first thought is almost practical: will she even reach it before dark? The distance between Christina and the house suddenly seems enormous. But for me, this painting is not only about distance. It is about the effort required to cross it. Christina …

William Hogarth — A Rake’s Progress: The Tavern Scene.

Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt Fashionable camouflage — what might those black patches conceal? When I first saw this painting by William Hogarth, A Rake’s Progress: The Tavern Scene, my eye was immediately drawn to the small black patches on the faces of some of the women. At first glance, they look like fashionable beauty spots. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such black patches, known as mouches, were worn on the face as decoration. They could be made …

The Swing

Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt What caught my attention? At first glance, I see a charming Rococo scene. A young woman in an enormous pink dress swings through a beautiful, almost dreamlike garden. Everything appears light, playful and romantic. But then I look more closely. Hidden in the bushes below her is a young man — positioned at exactly the right angle to look beneath her billowing skirt. Suddenly the painting becomes much less innocent. The woman seems to know perfe…

Gynecologic Surgeon

Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt What caught my attention? When I first looked at this painting, before I knew its history, I immediately felt uncomfortable. Something about the scene made me uneasy. A woman is sitting on an examination table. She appears vulnerable and tense. Two other women watch from behind the partition. Around her stand several men. Their posture, their clothing and the way they occupy the room give them authority. My eyes are drawn especially to the man on th…

A Dear Visitor

Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt When I look at this painting, I feel deeply saddened. I see a dying soldier who wants to say goodbye one last time to his horse, his companion with whom he has shared so much. But at the same time, I see an enormous amount of love. The horse seems to understand what is happening. Animals often appear to sense things that cannot be explained in words. It bends its head towards the man, while the man reaches out to touch it. There is no need for words…

The Paris Morgue

Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt What Caught My Attention? When I first saw this image, I had to look very carefully before I realised what I was actually looking at. The composition is remarkable. At first glance, it almost resembles a museum gallery. People stand quietly in front of a glass partition, looking at what appear to be exhibits. But they are not looking at works of art. They are looking at dead people. That is what makes the scene so unsettling. These were unidentified…

The Problem We All Live With

Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt What Caught My Attention? The first thing I notice when I look at this painting is the little girl. She is going to school. She is neatly dressed in white and carries her school things with her. At first, there seems to be nothing unusual about that. But the longer I look, the more uncomfortable the painting makes me feel. Four large adult men walk around her. We see their bodies, but not their faces. They seem almost anonymous. Then I notice the ar…

Kuyck, Frans van_Death and the Girl

Death and the Girl Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt What Caught My Attention? At first glance, this is not a cheerful painting. A young girl walks beside Death. Yet the strange thing is that the painting does not make me feel afraid. It gives me a sense of peace. That feeling surprised me and made me look closer. The girl is completely absorbed in the flowers she has gathered. She seems calm and content, unaware of anything threatening. Her attention is focused entirely on the beau…

Brueghel the Elder, Pieter – The Tower of Babel

At the top, the freshly laid bricks are still red, but at the base of the tower, the stones are already weathered and have taken on the color of the surrounding environment.as a symbol of the madness and arrogant ambitions of humanity. (Genesis 11:1–9) The story of the Tower of Babel is said to explain the existence of different languages and peoples. The Bible says that humanity originally spoke one and the same language, but when the Babylonians tried to build a tower that reached into h…

Unknown – 16th century_4 depictions of a doctor

As seen through the eyes of a patient in the 16th century (1600-1625) This is the first in a series of four paintings by an unknown artist from the Northern Netherlands, depicting the four guises of the doctor as seen through the eyes of a patient in the 16th century. These paintings are based on a series of four engravings from 1587 by Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617), but are not exact painted copies of these prints. ♦ first painting In this first painting, we see the doctor, whom the…

Eyck van Barthélemy_Still life with books

Still Life with Books & the Prophet Isaiah Barthélemy van Eyck, 1420-1470 c.1445 / Boijmans van Beuningen ♦ Description This depiction of the prophet Isaiah was once part of a triptych in the cathedral of the southern French city of Aix-en-Provence. The center panel still hangs in the church there. The right panel, depicting the prophet Jeremiah, is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels. The still life depicting books and wooden boxes was cut from the top of this depiction of I…

Matsys, Quinten_The Money Changer and His Wife

Quinten Matsys (1466, Leuven - 1530, Antwerpen) Musée du Louvre, Parijs The money-changer and his wife Banking and money-changing were relatively new professions in the early 16th century. In a rapidly changing society, commerce and money were taking on an increasingly important role. The Church warned against the resulting abuses. The man in this panel is absorbed in his work: weighing coins and determining their gold content. His wife watches intently. This is an early ‘genre piec…

Picasso, Pablo_Guernica

Guerníca is a painting by Picasso from 1937. The painting, which measures an enormous 3.49 m high and 7.76 m wide, depicts the bombing of Guernica (1937) during the Spanish Civil War. Guernica is on display at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) ♦ Past history In the winter (January) of 1937, Picasso accepted a commission from the Republican government to create a painting for the Paris Exposition. During the first few months, he was rather lacking in i…

Dou, Gerard_the Quack Doctor

Gerard Dou Gerrit Dou, also known as Gerard Dou, (Leiden, April 7, 1613 – buried there, February 9, 1675), was a Dutch painter. ♦ The quack deceives people, and people want to be deceived. At every fair or annual market in the 17th century, you could find a quack doctor; here you can see one such quack doctor depicted with his audience. Everything has been carefully staged. The quack is dressed in a sort of velvet stage costume. He touts his wares—the undoubtedly dubious conten…

Memling, Hans_Two horses in a landscape

Two horses in a landscape (an allegory of true love) The prince on the white horse in this painting by Hans Memling is a little monkey. It is an allegory of love, but its meaning is difficult to fathom as the work is no longer complete. It was probably part of a diptych. The left-hand panel is in an American collection. It is a portrait of a woman holding a small flower, a sign that she is in love. In this context, the brown horse is said to symbolise loyalty and passion; it gazes longingly to t…

Bosch, Hieronymus – The Peddler

Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt What Caught My Attention? When I first looked at Bosch's The Peddler, my eyes did not immediately go to the traveller. They went to the house behind him. The longer I looked, the stranger it became. I noticed the white cloth hanging from an upstairs window. I noticed the figures gathered near the doorway. I noticed a man standing against the wall. Nothing about the place felt calm or respectable. The house seemed full of activity, yet I found my…

Rembrandt_Elsje Christiaens

♦ CHRISTIAENS, Elsje ♦ (born in Jutland c. 1646 – died in Amsterdam c. 1 May 1664), a servant, sentenced to death for the murder of her landlady. Around 14 April 1664, Elsje Christiaens, originally from ‘Sprouwen’ (possibly the island of Sprogo) in Jutland and aged eighteen, arrived in Amsterdam. She hoped to find work there as a maid and rented a room from a ‘landlady’. Towards the end of that same month, the landlady demanded a daalder in rent, which s…

Fra Angelico_Annunciation

Maria Fra Angelico (1399-1455) ♦ De annunciation ♦ (Museo Diocesano, Cortona) Of the four evangelists, only Luke describes the moment when Mary learns that she will become the mother of the Son of God. Her consent marks the beginning of God’s plan to redeem humanity from the original sin committed by Adam and Eve through Jesus’ incarnation, death, and resurrection. In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to a young woman who was …

Rembrandt: Abraham and the Three Angels

Rembrandt (1606-1669) After God had announced to the 99-year-old Abraham the birth of a son, whom he was to name Isaac (‘he who laughs’; Genesis 17), he appeared to Abraham once more, by the oaks of Mamre. At the height of the day’s heat, Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent. When he looked up, he suddenly saw three men standing a short distance away. He immediately rushed out of the tent towards them. He bowed deeply and said, ‘Sir, please do not pass your ser…

Courbet, Gustave_The painters Studio

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) Courbet, the father of French realism, was born in 1819 in the provincial town of Ornans. Dissatisfied with the traditional teaching at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he took lessons at private art academies and taught himself by copying old masters in the Louvre. In doing so, he developed a particular fondness for the work of Caravaggio and Velázquez. Courbet exhibited for the first time at the Salon of 1844. He had radical political views and refused the …

Botticelli, Sandro_Primavera / Spring

Sandro Botticelli (1446–1510) ♦ Primavera means Spring It measures 203 × 314 cm. It was painted around 1477 and was almost certainly commissioned as a wedding gift for a nephew of Lorenzo de’ Medici, ‘Il Magnifico,’ and then hung in the couple’s bedroom. Afterwards, it fell into obscurity for hundreds of years, only to be rediscovered by the general public in the mid-19th century. The painting is the first work of the Renaissance in which pagan gods are …

Velazquez, Diego_Las Meninas

Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) ♦ The first modern painting The remarkable and unusual family portrait Las Meninas is the most famous and most widely discussed work by Diego Velázquez. The painting, created in 1656, depicts a fascinating period of the seventeenth century and is still widely studied today by artists, students, and critics. It is impossible to determine the true meaning behind Las Meninas, and this was probably Velázquez's intention. The painting raises many qu…

Bosch, Hieronymus_The Haywain triptych

Hieronymus Bosch (1450–1516) (Boijmans van Beuningen) Hieronymus Bosch is known for his crowded paintings, which are, as it were, a cacophony of scenes on a single canvas. ♦ Description of the Haywain ♦♦ center panel - at the top, Christ is seen on a cloud, with his arms spread out, looking out over the people. - In the center is the hay cart itself, with a bush on top of it, in front of which sits a man playing the lute with a couple singing along. In the bush, a couple …

Magritte, Rene_Reproduction prohibited

René Magritte, 1907-1984 La réproduction interdite, Boijmans van Beuningen. In 1912, when Magritte was thirteen years old, his mother’s body was recovered from the Sambre River. She had thrown herself into the water with a cloth tied around her forehead. In his work, he refers to this tragedy on several occasions with illustrations of a veiled woman whose face is covered. Magritte had two brothers: Raymond and Paul. Edward James was a wealthy English aristocrat and a surreali…

Dali, Salvadore_The Temptation of Saint Anthony

The Temptation of Saint Anthony is a surrealist painting by Salvador Dalí, created in 1946. It is one of Dalí's most famous works. This famous work by Dalí was painted for a competition organized by film producers Albert Lewin and David Loew. The painting was to play an important role in their film Bel Ami, based on a novella by Guy de Maupassant. Although Dalí did not win the competition with this work, it nevertheless attracted a great deal of attention. The the…

Campin, Robert — Mérode Triptych

“Mérode Triptych / altarpiece” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1425-30) Robert Campin 1375-1445 (and Rogier van der Weyden) The name Mérode comes from the Belgian noble family, the last private owner before the work became the property of the Metropolitan Museum in 1956. For an altarpiece, it is quite small. This indicates that it was not made for a church, but for private use. In a recognizable, atmospheric bourgeois interior, Gabriel announces Mary’s p…

Géricault, Théodore_The Raft of the Medusa

The sad story of a shipwreck served as the inspiration for one of the masterpieces at the Louvre in Paris. ♦ What is *The Raft of the Medusa*? ♦ Does the painting *The Raft of the Medusa* in the Louvre depict a real event? The French artist Théodore Géricault based his masterpiece on a real shipwreck. In 1816, the frigate *Méduse* ran aground on a sandbar 60 miles off the west coast of Africa. The disaster, which resulted in the deaths of 140 people on board (cre…

Leprosy

Lazarus Outside the Gate Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt What Caught My Attention? The first thing that caught my attention was the column in the middle of the painting. It divides the scene into two completely different worlds. On one side people gather around a richly decorated table. There is food, conversation and music. Nobody appears concerned about anything beyond the immediate pleasures of the moment. On the other side sits Lazarus: alone, poor and ill. My eyes keep moving…

Dental caries

Jan Steen 1626, Leiden – 1679, Leiden, the Netherlands ♦The Travelling Dentist (1651) ♦ A travelling dentist has set up shop in a Dutch village, where his actions provoke both bewilderment and hilarity amongst the onlookers. ♦ Diagnosis Main symptoms: Tooth extraction. Secondary symptoms: Young child. Clinical diagnosis: Tooth extraction due to caries. ♦ Definition: dentalcaries A localised, progressive deterioration of the teeth, beginning with the breakdown of too…

Melanoma or naevus (birthmark)

Diego Rodriquez de Silva y Velázquez 1599, Seville – 6 August 1660, Madrid, Spain ♦ Portrait of Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561–1627) ♦ Luis de Góngora y Argote was a famous Spanish poet. In 1626, he fell ill whilst out for a ride in the countryside. He later complained that he could remember nothing of recent events, but only of things that had happened a long time ago. Overcome by despair and restricted in his movements, he died one year later, in 16…

Rhinophyma rosacea_depression

Rembrandt Harmenz. van Rijn 15 July 1606, Leiden – 4 October 1669, Amsterdam, the Netherlands ♦ Self-Portrait, 1659 ♦ Rembrandt, aged 51 in this portrait, clasped his hands and turned his head. At first glance, it seems as though he is actually there. ♦ Diagnosis Main symptoms: Drooping of the eyebrows and eyelids, more pronounced on the left than on the right. Arcus senilis (a white-grey ring in the cornea) and xanthelasma, telangiectasia (dilated blood vessels) with a r…

Alopecia areata (hair loss)

Francisco de Goya March 30, 1746, Fuendetodos, (Zaragosa), Spain - April 16, 1828, Bordeaux, France ♦ The Wedding 1792 ♦ This large caricature by Goya reveals his talent for satire. It depicts an arranged marriage from his time: the children, the musicians, the bride and groom—she is elegant, he is grotesque—the bride's friends, the priest, the witness, in short, everyone who takes part in the wedding party. ♦ Diagnosis Main symptoms: Oval patches with hair loss…

Fungal infection_Favus

Ferdinand Bol 24 June 1616, Dordrecht – 24 August 1680, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Ferdinand Bol studied in Rembrandt’s studio around 1635. The master had a strong influence on the young artist. ♦ The trustees of the leprosy hospital in Amsterdam (1649) ♦ The doctors are wearing the typical attire of doctors of that era. Before they were admitted to the hospital and banished from society, candidates had to appear before a council of physicians. Here, a father is asking fo…

Rhinoscleroma

Monogrammisten N.N. 1645-1658 Artist from the Low Countries ♦ An old man with a growth on his nose ♦ This unidentified man with a growth on his nose is, judging by his outfit (a black skirt, greyish-yellow fur and a gousen medal), probably a nobleman. ♦ Diagnosis Main symptoms: Large, flat and hard swelling of the nose. Additional symptoms: An elderly man, richly dressed. Clinical diagnosis: Rhinoscleroma ♦ Definition: rhinoscleroma A new growth, almost as hard as stone, …

Rhinophyma or bulbous nose

Domenico Ghirlandaio 1449, Firenze – 11 jan 1494, Firenze, Italië ♦ Old Man with a Child (Count Francesco Sassetti with his Grandson) 1490 ♦ Francesco Sassetti was a 15th-century banker and an influential patron of the arts. His portrait reflects the grace, dignity, inner tranquillity and robust bearing of old age. The portrait is regarded as Ghirlandaio’s masterful depiction of the intense relationship between the old man and the child. ♦ Diagnosis Main sympto…

Love sickness, pregnancy

Jan Steen 1626, Leiden – 1679, Leiden, the Netherlands ♦ The visit to the doctor ♦ With a theatrical gesture, a doctor takes the pulse of a sick girl whilst her mother holds the urine bottle. A ribbon is being burnt in a dish. ♦ Diagnosis Main symptoms: Headache, burning sensation. Secondary symptoms: Young girl, the doctor and mother acting the part, young boy with a bow and arrow, Venus and Adonis in a painting on the wall. Clinical diagnosis: Love sickness, pregnancy. …

Extraction of the Stone of Madness

Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt What Caught My Attention? When I look at The Extraction of the Stone of Madness, I first see a patient who has placed his trust in someone else. A man sits in a chair while a so-called surgeon cuts into his head. The scene seems absurd. According to the old belief behind this image, foolishness or madness could be caused by a stone inside the head, and removing that stone would make the patient well again. To us, this seems impossible. But what inte…

Manic Depression Psychosis

Vincent van Gogh 30 March 1853, Zundert, the Netherlands – 29 July 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France In his ‘W 11 1889’, Vincent van Gogh wrote: ‘As for myself, I often feel unsettled in my mind, because I think my life has not been peaceful enough. All those bitter disappointments, setbacks and changes have prevented me from developing my artistic career fully and naturally’. ♦ Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear (1889) ♦ ♦ Diagnosis Main symptoms: Part…

Insanity_Malle Babbe (1640)

Frans Hals 1580/85, Antwerp, Belgium – 1 September 1666, Haarlem, the Netherlands Frans Hals was born in Antwerp to Flemish parents who fled to the Netherlands after the city fell into Spanish hands in 1585. His parents settled in Haarlem in 1591 and lived there for the rest of their lives. Frans married twice, had at least ten children and was constantly in financial difficulties. During the final years of his life he was completely destitute, but the municipal authorities of Haarlem gran…

Psychoneurosis (acute)

Jusepe de Ribera 1591, Játiva, Valencia – 1652, Naples, Italy Jusepe de Ribera, known as La Spagnoletto (the little Spaniard), was a Spanish painter and printmaker, renowned for his dramatic Baroque realism. ♦ A desperate woman ♦ A woman with a white scarf draped over her shoulders runs away, shouting for help. ♦ Diagnosis Main symptoms: Distorted face, screaming mouth, pulling at her hair. Secondary symptoms: Young woman, pale, runs away. Clinical diagnosis: Acute…

Murder (pneumothorax, arterial haemorrhage)

Jaques-Louis David 30 August 1748, Paris, France – 29 December 1825, Brussels, Belgium ♦ The Assassination of Marat (1793) ♦ This painting is also known as *The Pietà of the Revolution*. The divine journalist Marat, with one hand hanging over the edge of his bath, loosely clutching his final pen, his chest pierced by the sacrilegious wound, has just breathed his last. On the green writing desk placed in front of him on the bath, he still holds with his other hand the tre…

Membraneuze glomerulonefritis

Gerard (Gerrit) Dou 7 April 1613, Leiden – 9 February 1675, Leiden, the Netherlands Gerard Dou, the son of a glass painter, was trained as an engraver. He worked in the studio of the young Rembrandt. Although he occasionally ‘borrowed’ themes from Rembrandt, his execution was more detailed and meticulous. His scenes depicting middle-class domestic life were immensely popular and were often imitated. ♦ The woman with dropsy ♦ A very ill woman is being cared for in a …

Lymph node tumour (lymphoma), non-Hodgkin’s

Marinus van Reymerswaele 1490, Reymerswael – 1567, Reymerswael, Zeeland Marinus van Reymerswaele is one of the most important painters of the Antwerp School in the 16th century. He adopted the outstanding painting style of Quinten Massijs, and his works are consequently strongly influenced by him. ♦ The money-changer and his wife (1539) ♦ This painting is not intended, as it might appear, to be a mere simple genre scene. It is a moral allegory of avarice. The figures in the pai…

Diphtheria

Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt What Caught My Attention? When I first looked at this painting, I noticed the boy's open mouth. The adult figure seems to be examining his throat with great attention. To a modern viewer, the scene can almost look medical. Only later did I learn that the painting illustrates an episode from the Spanish picaresque novel Lazarillo de Tormes, a story about deception, survival and cunning. Yet the image continued to make me think about disease. Look…

Otitis media (acute middle ear infection)

Pablo Picasso 25 October 1881, Málaga, Spain – 8 April 1973, Mougins, France Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period was characterised by sadness and melancholy, both in his personal life and in the pitiable figures he painted on his canvases. His powerful, creative personality led him to move away from the figurative style, which was the norm in his day, in favour of an independent and decisive character in his work. In any case, there is a great deal of soul in the paintings from this B…

Measles? / Rubella? (acute viral infection)

Gabriel Metsu 1629, Leiden – 1667, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Gabriel Metsu was born in Leiden, the son of a Flemish painter who had moved north. He was a pupil of Gerrit Dou, a painter of genre scenes and the founder of the so-called ‘school of fine painters’, which was characterised by its exquisite finish. ♦ The sick child ♦ A child with a fever, a bowl of porridge on a small table, and a worried mother. ♦ Diagnosis Main symptoms: Fever, measles-like rash, …

Pseudopregnancy

Jan van Eyck 1390, Maaseik – 19 July 1441, Bruges, Belgium ♦ The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfi (1434) ♦ Here, in his highly realistic and colourful style, Jan van Eyck painted and documented an event from everyday life in the city: the wedding of Giovanni Arnolfi. The man is wearing a mink-fur cloak resembling a scapular (a shoulder cloak worn by members of the older order) and a large, wide-brimmed hat. He is the Italian merchant Arnolfi, who ran Marco Guidecom’s Lucca-ba…

Breast development (delayed)

Piero di Cosimo 1462, Florence – 1521, Florence, Italy ♦ Simonetta Vespucci (1453–1476) ♦ The young woman in Piero di Cosimo's painting wears an elegant braided hairstyle in the style of a donna: a complex arrangement of braids, decorated with pearls and interwoven with strings of pearls. Her high forehead is shaved according to the fashion that was in vogue in Italian and Dutch aristocratic circles in the last quarter of the 15th century. There is a certain melanchol…

Eye surgery

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn 15 July 1606, Leiden – 14 October 1669, Amsterdam, the Netherlands ♦ Tobias heals his blind father / Tobit and Angel Healing ♦ Tobit, Tobias’s father, lived in exile and – at least according to the Bible – went blind after burying the children of Israel. 'I came home in the middle of the night, washed myself and lay down to sleep against the wall of the courtyard. Because it was so hot, I left my face uncovered. But I hadn&rsquo…

Hunger oedema

José Aparicio e Inglada 1770, Alicante – 1838, Madrid, Spain Patriotic guards come to the aid of Madrid’s starving citizens during the French invasion. ♦ Hunger in Madrid (Hambre en Madrid), 1818 ♦ Although José Aparicio e Inglada undoubtedly had didactic and moralising intentions with his paintings, they are in fact rather rhetorical, theatrical and self-congratulatory, which explains their enduring success in official circles. He became, incidentally, very…

Gigantism & Acromegaly

Jan van Eyck 1390, Maaseik – 19 July 1441, Bruges, Belgium ♦ Panel with the Hermits and Pelgrims / The Ghent Altarpiece ♦ The man in this painting is a giant. He is at least one-third taller than the others He is Saint Christopher, who, according to legend, carried pilgrims—including Christ—across the river. ♦ Diagnosis Main features: Very tall man; giant. The left foot is deformed, with a clubfoot (talipes equinovarus), and the great toe is deviated (hallux v…

Progeria

Albrecht Dürer 21 May 1471, Nuremberg – 6 April 1528, Nuremberg, Germany This painting is the last work Dürer ever produced. It reflects Dürer’s curiosity in portraying the unusual. ♦ Child with a long beard (1527) ♦ ♦ Diagnosis Key features: juvenile appearance, grey hair and a beard Additional features: child with fine skin texture Clinical features: progeria? ♦ Definition: progeria Premature senility: a clinical condition characterised by sym…

Rachitic chest

Jusepe de Ribera 1591, Játiva, Valencia – 1652, Naples, Italy Ribera was a pupil of Caravaggio, and this is evident in his paintings, which display an extremely naturalistic approach and feature the same ‘dark’ light with which he manages to portray his powerful, sculptural figures. By casting a bright light on certain parts of the painting, he draws the viewer’s attention, whilst at the same time omitting carefully chosen elements and constructing his composition …

Flat foot and pointed foot

Meester LCZ 1480 - 1505 ♦ Christ stands before Pilate ♦ Christ is brought before Pilate by a roaring crowd, and Pilate gestures to indicate: ‘I have nothing to do with this man’. Christ is barefoot, whilst the others are wearing shoes. Pilate, in particular, is wearing very fashionable shoes. ♦ Diagnosis Key findings: right-turned and shortened forefoot, flat foot. Additional findings: x-toe (halgus vallus) Clinical diagnosis: flat foot on the left foot ♦ Defi…

Goitre (struma)

Rogier van der Weyden 1399, Tournai – 18 June 1464, Brussels, Belgium ♦ The Virgin and Child (Virgin duran), 1435-1440 ♦ A lively child is sitting on his mother’s lap, crumpling the pages of the book she is reading. ♦ Diagnosis Main symptoms: General enlargement of the thyroid gland. Additional symptoms: Female Clinical diagnosis: Goitre. ♦ Definition: Goitre (struma) The term refers to an enlargement of the thyroid gland and does not imply any change in funct…

Harelip (cheiloschisis) / cleft palate

Juan de Flandes 1465, Belgium-1519, Valencia, Spain Juan de Flandes, a Flemish painter, was active in Spain from 1496 onwards. He entered the service of Queen Isabella, who appointed him court painter in 1498. ♦ The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, from the Miraflores Altarpiece ♦ ♦ Diagnosis Main feature: Cleft upper lip. Additional features: Male; executioner. Clinical diagnosis: Cleft lip (cheiloschisis) and cleft palate. ♦ Definition: Cleft lip (cheiloschisis A cl…

Agenesia Sacrale (a rare congenital disorder in which the fetal development of the lower spine)

Pieter Brueghel the Younger 1564, Brussels - 1667, Antwerp, Belgium Pieter Breughel the Younger was the eldest of two sons, born shortly after the death of their father, Pieter Breughel. (The father spelled his name as ‘Breughel’ until 1559, then as ‘Brueghel’. The sons retained the ‘h’ in the spelling of their names). The young Breughel is also known as Hellebreughel because of his fondness for goblins, fire, and grotesque figures. He made his career in Antwe…

Arthrogryposis congenita (birth defect, joints contracted)

Master of Alkmaar 1490–1510, Alkmaar, Netherlands ♦ Feed the hungry ♦ A woman stands in the doorway of her home with a basket of bread that her husband distributes to the poor and crippled. Christ stands among the hungry. In the background is a beggar with a lute. Part of a series of seven paintings depicting the seven works of mercy. ♦ Diagnosis Main symptoms: Deformed foot; severe clubfoot, paralyzed, unusable lower legs. Secondary symptoms: Edema on the legs, crutches.…

Prepatellaire bursitis

Gaspar de Crayer 1584, Antwerp – 1669, Ghent, Belgium The encounter between the ancient Greek ruler Alexander the Great and the Greek philosopher Diogenes was a popular subject in Italian and Flemish Baroque painting. Crayer was a pupil of Rubens and was also influenced by van Dyck. ♦ Alexander the Great and Diogenes (1620) ♦ When Alexander the Great, ruler of the world, asked the philosopher Diogenes what he wanted most, Diogenes replied: ‘Step out of my sunlight, won&rs…

Paget’s disease

Quinten Metsijs 1465, Leuven – 1530, Antwerp, Belgium Metsijs was born in Leuven and completed his apprenticeship under the influence of Bouts. We do not know whether he also travelled to Italy to study art, as was customary at the time. His work, however, whilst rooted in Flemish traditions, does show Italian influences, particularly from Leonardo da Vinci. ♦ Grotesque old woman ♦ The painting depicts an elderly woman holding a rosebud between her fingers. She is wearing a dre…

Osteoarthritis / hallux valgus

Jan van Eyck 1390, Maaseik – 19 July 1441, Ghent, Belgium Jan van Eyck was a Flemish painter who perfected the newly developed oil painting technique. His naturalistic panel paintings, mainly portraits and religious subjects, are replete with hidden religious symbols. His masterpiece is the altarpiece The Adoration of the Lamb, commissioned for Ghent Cathedral. According to some, it was Hubert van Eyck, Jan’s brother, who began the painting. ♦ Panel depicting St John the Baptis…

Artritis psoriatica (inflammatory disease of the joint)

Vincent van Gogh March 30, 1853, Zundert, Netherlands - July 27, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France Van Gogh is widely regarded as the greatest Dutch painter and draughtsman since Rembrandt. He had a profound influence on the Expressionist movement in modern art. His work, painted in a period of barely 10 years, is haunting in its striking colors, rough brushwork, and abstract forms. ♦ La Berceuse ♦ Van Gogh painted five versions of La Berceuse. They depict Madame Roulin, wife of postman …

Artritis reumatoïde

Jacob Jordaens 1593, Antwerp – 1678, Antwerp, Belgium ♦ The painter's family ♦ In this painting, Jordaens depicts himself surrounded by his household members. The painter himself stands on the right, with one foot casually resting on the crossbar of a chair, while his hand seeks support on the backrest. With his left hand, he holds the neck of the lute. His wife, elegantly dressed and wearing a large collar, is depicted on the left. She is sitting on a low chair and her rig…

Herpes zoster (shingles)

Rembrandt van Rijn 15 July 1606, Leiden – 14 October 1669, Amsterdam, the Netherlands ♦ Rembrandt’s mother 1639 ♦ Rembrandt painted his mother a year before she died. She is leaning on a walking stick and wearing a Jewish prayer shawl, depicting the prophetess Hannah, aged 84, as described in Luke 2:36–38: ‘There was also a prophetess, Hannah, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years: after her girlhood, she had lived with her …

Rheumatic fever (acute)

Jan Steen 1626, Leiden – 1697, Leiden, the Netherlands Jan Steen is best known for his humorous genre paintings, warm and lively works in which he depicts life as a comedy full of little quirks. However, he also painted scenes of impeccable elegance. In addition to his versatility, his rich characterisation and his ingenuity in composition, Steen is also remarkable for his skill as a colourist. The way in which he renders salmon red, pink, pale yellow and blue-green is quite extraordinary.…

Parotitis (mumps)

Pedro Machuca 1490, Toledo - 1550, Granada, Spain Trained in Italy, Machuca paints this moonlit descent from the cross in a mannerist style, using bright colors and surprising details. For example, at the front right there is a sick boy with a bandage around his head. ♦ The Descent from the Cross, 1547 ♦ ♦ Diagnosis Main symptoms: Swollen left cheek, supportive bandage with cotton, wool, and ointment; pained expression, sunken nose, large forehead. Secondary symptoms: Small boy…

Syphilis (hard chancre)

Piedro Longhi 5 November 1701, Venice – 8 May 1785, Venice, Italy Piedro Longhi is an Italian genre painter who depicts his scenes as if on a theatre stage, perhaps because he was a close friend of the playwright Carlo Goldoni. ♦ The pharmacist ♦ A young woman is being treated by a pharmacist in a typical 18th-century chemist’s shop. Bottles, jars, glasses containing reagents, mortars and boxes fill the room. An assistant is writing out a prescription; two people are wait…

Influenza Epidemic of 1858

Honoré-Victorien Daumier 26 February 1808, Marseille – 11 February 1879, Valmondois, France Honoré Daumier is France’s greatest caricaturist and political and social satirist. During his career, he produced around 5,000 lithographs, 300 paintings, 800 drawings, 1,000 woodcuts, and 50 sculptures. ♦ Omnibus During an Influenza Epidemic (1858) ♦ ♦ Diagnosis: Main symptoms: Irritating cough in young and old, runny nose, shivering. Associated symptoms: Crow…

Polio

18th dynasty, Egypt (c. 1400 v.Chr.) This Egyptian wall painting, dating from around 1400 BC, depicts the poor gatekeeper Ruma bringing an offering to the goddess Ishtar to cure him of his lameness. ♦ Painted stele of the gatekeeper Ruma ♦ ♦ Diagnosis: Main symptoms: atrophied muscles, shortened right leg, contracted Achilles tendon Additional symptoms: young man, uses a long walking stick Clinical diagnosis: acute anterior poliomyelitis ♦ Definition: acute anterior polio…

Tuberculosis

The Sick Child Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt What Caught My Attention? When I look at this painting, it is not so much what I see that affects me, but what I feel. I feel overwhelming sadness and helplessness. My eyes are immediately drawn to the mother, gently holding her daughter's hand. The young girl, with her reddish-blonde hair illuminated against the pillow, gazes listlessly towards the window. Her pale hand rests motionless on the blanket, exhausted by her illness. T…

Osteomyelitis

Personal reflection by Loes van Damme-Rietvelt What caught my attention? The first thing that caught my attention was not the priest, the room or even the people around the bed. It was the leg. Something is clearly terribly wrong. Several people have gathered around the patient. One examines the affected limb closely. Another appears unable to ignore the smell coming from the wound. The patient has turned away from the leg and towards a religious figure standing beside the bed. The scene immedia…

Pseudohermafroditisme

Jusepe de Ribera 1591, Játiva, Valencia – 1652, Naples, Italy ♦ Magdelena Ventura, the woman with the beard ♦ The painting of the bearded woman, Magdelena Ventura, with her husband and child, was commissioned from Jusepe de Ribera in 1631 by Ferdinand II, 3rd Duke of Alcalá and Viceroy of Naples. The painting bears an inscription with the following text: Magdelena Ventura, the great wonder of nature, from the town of Accumole in central Italy, aged 52 ♦ Diag…

Bubonic plague

Titiaan (Tiziano Gregorio Vecello) 490, Pieve di Cadore – 27 August 1576, Venice, Italy When the Black Plague was raging in Venice, Titian was working in Padua on frescoes for the Scuola del Santo depicting the life of Saint Anthony. Titian, one of the most important masters of the Italian Renaissance and a pupil of Bellini, collaborated with Giorgione. This early work was originally attributed to Giorgione, but is now considered to be a piece that Titian painted shortly before Giorgione&r…

Neurofibromatose

Vincent van Gogh 30 March 1853, Zundert, Netherlands – 27 July 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France ♦ The one-eyed man with a swollen face ♦ Portrait of a man with one eye. *The One-Eyed Man with the Swollen Face* (1888) was painted whilst van Gogh was admitted to a mental health institution. ♦ Diagnosis: Main symptoms: swelling of the left upper eyelid, which pushes the eyebrow upwards and causes the eye to close ♦ Clinical diagnosis: neurofibromatosis, Recklinghausen&rsq…