JOURNAL ARTICLE
REVIEW
Add like
Add dislike
Add to saved papers

Goiters in the Renaissance era: Multiple cases of thyroid autoimmunity and iodine deficiency.

The Renaissance is recognised as an inflection point in history that led to the dissemination of innovation, science, philosophy, and the arts to spearhead a leap for global civilisation. Many of the greatest outputs from the Renaissance were presented in artwork which was able to champion elements of naturalism and realism, and therefore moved away from preconceived ideas. This included the portrayal of anatomy and pathology with an exactitude previously unseen in art. I note novel identification of goiters in multiple paintings of the foremost Renaissance genius artists and their originating artistic schools, those of Verrocchio, Lippi and Ferrara. These can be categorised through the proposed (i) 'da Vinci Sign' after Leonardo da Vinci, where the goitre is artistically presented as a loss or shallowing of the suprasternal notch recess or (ii) the 'Botticelli Sign' after Sandro Botticelli, where there is demonstrable cranio-cervical neck flexion that forward projects the visceral compartment of the neck that includes the thyroid to accentuate a recognisable thyroid enlargement. These are notable in the works of genius artists that include Verrocchio, Lorenzo di Credi, Filippo Lippi, Cosimo Tura and Francesco Cossa. Together, the work of these artistic geniuses add to the corpus of notable endocrine pathology in the Renaissance deriving from endemic iodine deficiency and autoimmunity. They demonstrate this profound extent of pathology within their artistic masterpieces and extend our admiration of the wider experience of Renaissance artists into the current era and beyond.

Full text links

We have located links that may give you full text access.
Can't access the paper?
Try logging in through your university/institutional subscription. For a smoother one-click institutional access experience, please use our mobile app.

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

Mobile app image

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.

By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Your Privacy Choices Toggle icon

You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app