Michelangelo ‘painted woman with breast cancer’

Renaissance artist’s fresco on Sistine Chapel ceiling appears to feature woman with symptoms of disease, researchers claim

Michelangelo may have depicted a woman suffering from breast cancer in a famous fresco of a biblical flood on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, researchers have suggested.
The naked woman, who is wearing only a blue headscarf, was brought to life by the Renaissance figure in his iconic fresco, known as ‘The Flood’, which was painted between 1508 and 1512.
She is shown clutching her ribs just below her breast as men and women with children attempt to flee God’s flooding of the Earth in a chaotic depiction from The Bible’s Book of Genesis.
A study published in the medical journal The Breast found the woman’s breast and the area around her right armpit was disfigured in a way consistent with symptoms of the disease.
Dr Raffaella Bianucci, an expert in the medical analysis of artwork – known as iconodiagnosis – at the University of Paris-Saclay, said the woman appears to have a retracted nipple and areola on her right breast surrounded by lumps and indentations.
Researchers also noted a bulge beneath the woman’s armpit which may portray enlarged lymph nodes.
“The contrast with the right breast is evident. Although slightly elevated by her right arm, there is a significantly retracted and deformed nipple,” the researchers said.
The researchers also believe the potential representation of breast cancer may tie in with the Florentine’s attempts to portray the inevitability of death.
Dr Bianucci said the finding was particularly significant because it may confirm the incidence of cancer as far back as 1508 when Michelangelo painted the fresco, a mural painting technique that daubs water-based paint into wet plaster.
She said the depiction also reflected the scientific breakthroughs in identifying disease in that era. “The Renaissance was not only a period of artistic creativity, it marked the dawn of surgery,” Dr Bianucci told The Telegraph.
Michelangelo was well known for his studies of the human body and had examined and dissected cadavers from a young age.
Previous ground-breaking research showed he also hid anatomical sketches in the robes and faces of his figures in the Sistine Chapel in an attack of the Church’s disdain for science.
The woman at the centre of the latest research was shown in one of nine scenes from the Book of Genesis that stretch across the vast ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, located in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City.
“Each woman’s naked breast was carefully examined by our team in order to identify the presence of possible pathological conditions,” Dr Bianucci said.
“The case of ‘The Flood’ is particularly interesting, especially because it allows multiple levels of interpretation.”
The researchers said Michelangelo might have “had knowledge of healthy breasts of different sizes and morphologies” and presenting a “pathological breast conditions” with a theological meaning may have been his intention.
Michelangelo painted more than 300 figures across the celebrated ceiling which attracts more than five million visitors a year.
Experts have long been fascinated by the accuracy of the artist’s anatomical portrayal as well as his theological interpretation of biblical events.
Researchers have previously identified physical signs of breast cancer including swelling and skin retraction in the breast of a woman Michelangelo depicted in his image of ‘Night’ above the Tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici in Florence.