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Michelangelo’s famous 16th-century artwork Genesis depicts this deadly, modern disease
Italian sculptor and painter Michelangelo’s famous artwork Genesis has become a subject of intrigue among the medical community, while researchers have discovered that a woman painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in 1508 had advanced breast cancer. This unusual depiction of the deadly disease, which affects more than 2.3 million women worldwide, shows that the artist must have been not only aware but deliberately chose to depict this great work.
Work on the chapel’s ceiling began in 1508 on the orders of Pope Julius II, taking four years to complete with numerous scenes from the Old Testament and images of the prophets.
A reimagining of scenes from Genesis – one of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s most popular and intriguing artworks – from the Sistine Chapel is now the subject of fascinating medical study. Researchers have found that the painting – which contains at least 300 figures soon to die in the flood – features a woman with her breasts painted on another part of the vault that is advanced. breast cancer,
This unusual depiction of the deadly disease, which affects more than 2.3 million women worldwide, shows that the artist may have not only been aware of it but may have deliberately chosen to depict it in this great work.
The international team of experts combined their knowledge of art history, medicine and genetics, using various methods to diagnose the health condition of an imaginary, semi-nude woman in a scene depicting the flood in the Bible and propose its causes. Provided insights from the topics. appearance.
How did painting originate?
Work on the chapel’s ceiling began in 1508 on the orders of Pope Julius II, taking four years to complete featuring numerous scenes from the Old Testament, images of the prophets, and representations of other famous Biblical events.
Michelangelo, then in his thirties, reluctantly agreed to take on the task of brilliantly sculpting anatomy and capturing extraordinary levels of detail in his subjects. He also observed a deformity in the left breast of one figure.
How is breast cancer depicted in painting?
According to art historians, a woman among the crowd of exhausted bodies wearing a blue headscarf, escaping the rising waters, is shown as married and the gesture of her finger to the earth suggests that her return to the dust was imminent.
Various medical experts have focused their attention on her left breast – sized according to age and motherhood, indicative of retracted skin around the areolar area, and subtle swelling in the upper portion and near the armpit.
Experts say that the symptoms shown are strong indications of breast cancer.
What does breast cancer represent in the painting?
According to doctors, breast cancer in young people may be explained by the inheritance of high-risk genes, some of which have been detected in Europe for centuries. Scientists have said that the design was created intentionally by Michelangelo after comparing the details with several other figures in the painting, as well as with the features of the woman’s other breast.
Furthermore, various comparisons of photographs taken of the scenes in the past make it clear that there has been no significant change in the original shape and shade of the breasts.
Michelangelo had participated in various dissections since his adolescence, and gained an appreciation of how the body operated on a mechanical level. Researchers have refuted suggestions that the artist authentically copied the pathology from a model with breast cancer – or even replaced it with a male model with poor anatomy.
According to scientists who published the study in the journal breastThis may not have been the only depiction of Michelangelo’s illness. Years later, a female depiction of the Night with a distorted breast was carved for the tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici, which attracted the attention of oncologists in 2000.
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