Mona Lisa ’s coy grin invites a barrage of question — the most common being , what make her smirk ? Some historiographer have mistrust she recently gave parentage and she smile out of joy . Others interpret it as the satisfied , yet guilty looking at of an unfaithful married woman .
Vito Franco is n’t as concerned in her smile , though . Her skin and eyes preoccupy the pathologist from Palermo University . When he glances at the iconic image , he sees a womansuffering from high cholesterol .
Franco examined the painting and noticed fatso back breaker buildups , do it as xanthelasma , on her left-hand eyelid . Xanthelasmas are yellow patches of cholesterin built up under the peel . On measured review , he noticed a lipoma ( a benignant fatty tissue tumor ) on her right hand .
The MD meditate more than 100 whole shebang of art , order from Egyptian sculptures to contemporary painting . He sees disease in many of the image he scrutinise from the Renaissance epoch . In Botticelli’sPortrait of a Youth , the son ’s long , soft fingers show he lose from Marfan syndrome — a disease of the connective tissues , which sometimes pass to an aortal aneurism . He believes that Margarita in Diego Velázquez’sLas Meninashad a goitre and McCune - Albright syndrome , a disorder causing premature puberty . And Franco even diagnosed Michelangelo ’s wellness problems based on a painting . In Raphael’sThe School of Athens , the artist ’s genu are swollen . Franco believes kidney rock provoke Michelangelo , get a build up of uric Zen leading to swollen joints .
" Illness is part of the body , not a metaphysic or supernatural attribute , " Franco toldLa Stampa . " And so in revealing their physicality , the people show expose their human vulnerability independently from our awareness of the authors of the employment . "
