Did Michelangelo paint a young adult woman with breast cancer in “The Flood” (Sistine Chapel, Rome)?
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The Flood is the first pictorial scene that Michelangelo Buonarroti painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. On the right side of the fresco a woman with abnormal breast morphology is presented and the nature of her disease is considered using the Guidelines for Iconodiagnosis. A team of experts covering art history, art expertise, medicine, genetics, and pathology undertook the process and concluded that the pathology shown is probably breast cancer, most likely linked to the symbolic significance of an inevitable death as expressed in the Book of Genesis.
Source: The Breast
Authors: Andreas G. Nerlich, Johann C. Dewaal, Antonio Perciaccante, Serena Di Cosimo, Laura Cortesi, Judith Wimmer, Simon T. Donell, Raffaella Bianucci
Institutions: Institut für Rechtsmedizin, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Université Paris-Saclay, Azienda sanitaria universitaria Giuliano Isontina, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Modena, University of East Anglia, Laboratoire Anthropologie, Archéologie, Biologie
Language: English
Topic: History of Medicine Studies
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,810
OpenAlex ID: W4403558596