Disease in Art and Art(ist) in Disease : Reflections on Paradigmatic Works by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti

Humanity has always shown a keen interest in the pathological, ranging from a morbid fascination with ‘monsters’ and deformities to a genuine compassion for the ill and suffering. Medieval and early modern people were no exception, expressing their emotional response to disease in both literary works and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in the plastic arts. Consequently, it becomes necessary to ask what motivated writers and artists to choose an illness or a disability and its physical and social consequences as subjects of aesthetic or intellectual expression. Were these works the result of an intrusion in their intent to faithfully reproduce nature, or do they reflect an intentional contrast against the pre-modern portrayal of spiritual ideals and, later, through the influence of the classics, the rediscovered importance and beauty of the human body? The essay address these questions, albeit not always directly but, rather, through an analysis of the societal reactions to the threats and challenges that essentially unopposed disease and physical impairment presented. The purpose of the essay is to present an analysis of illness and disease in its various artistic expressions: as a driving force (and stimulus) behind an artist’s aesthetic action or, alternatively, as a disturbance and interference to artistic creation or, again, as an outcome and component of artistic production. Paintings, poems, letters and other literary forms are examined with the intent to explore ill health – in its various connotations of illness, sickness, and disease – as it appears, both explicitly or implicitly, in the work of great artists such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) who created vividly paradigmatic works of strikingly expressive force. Illness is also explored in relation to grace and beauty, (as in the often enigmatic beauty of the subjects whose features, or history are depicted or narrated in the work): two of distinctive elements of the evolving and multidimensional image of reality presented by artists who transcended the fixed canons, conventions and customs of their time.