El niño con enfermedades infecciosas en las artes visuales: pintura / The child with infectious diseases in the visual arts: painting

Resumen: El impacto catastrófico de las enfermedades infecciosas sobre la salud infantil, como también el rol trascendental y benéfico aportado por la instauración y ejecución de medidas sanitarias y de inmuno- prevención ha sido un tema recurrente en la historia de la medicina, aunque una vez logrado el con trol de la enfermedad, estas pasan fácilmente al olvido. Ante esto, parece necesario rememorar aquel escenario social mediante un acercamiento a través de la pintura. Las obras pictóricas son testigo de aquello, pues las enfermedades son objeto de representación y a su vez se han convertido en un in valuable documento en la historia de la medicina. Patologías pediátricas como tuberculosis, difteria, poliomielitis, sarampión, viruela y sífilis como también el inicio de la vacunación, son analizadas en diversas pinturas con el objetivo de profundizar el conocimiento de la época histórica, el autor y su vínculo con dicha enfermedad.

Abstract: The catastrophic impact of infectious diseases on children's health, as well the transcendental and be neficial role played by the establishment and execution of health measures and immunoprevention, has been a recurrent subject in the history of medicine, although once the disease has been controlled, they are easily forgotten. In view of this, it seems necessary to recall that social scenario through an approach through painting. The pictorial works are witnesses of that since diseases are subject of representation, and at the same time, they have become an invaluable document in the history of me dicine. Pediatric pathologies such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, polio, measles, smallpox, and syphilis, as well as the initiation of vaccination, are analyzed in various paintings with the aim of deepening knowledge of the historical era, the author and his or her link to this disease.

Miguel Ángel y el hígado de Noé: ¿Una lección secreta de anatomía? / Michelangelo and Noah's liver: a hidden anatomy lesson?

Miguel Ángel Buonarroti (1475 - 1564) es considerando uno de los más grandes artistas de la historia. Estudió en detalle la anatomía humana a través de la disección de cadáveres, práctica hasta entonces relegada por motivos religiosos. Desde que en el año 1990 el médico Frank Lynn Meshberger publicara su interpretación del fresco "La Creación de Adán" basada en la neuroanatomía, en donde comparaba la imagen de Dios con la de una sección sagital del cerebro humano, muchos autores han encontrado diversas referencias anatómicas ocultas en la obra de Miguel Ángel. En el presente trabajo exponemos el hallazgo de una inédita lección de anatomía hepática oculta en el fresco La Embriaguez de Noé de la Capilla Sixtina.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564) is considered one of the greatest artists in history. He studied in detail the human anatomy through corpses dissection, practice until then relegated for religious reasons. Since the physician Frank Lynn Meshberger published in 1990 his interpretation of the fresco "The Creation of Adam" based on neuroanatomy, where he compared the image of God with a sagittal section of the human brain, many authors have found various hidden anatomical references in the work of Michelangelo. In the present paper we expose the finding of a hidden lesson on liver anatomy in the fresco The Drunkenness of Noah of the Sistine Chapel.

William Hunter (1718-1783): su legado a trescientos años de su nacimiento / William Hunter (1718-1783): his legacy three hundred years from his birthday

The aim of this paper is to evaluate some aspects of the life of William Hunter (1718-1783), and to argue that he deserves a better place in history as he was one of the most outstanding figures in British medicine of the 18th century. A Scotsman, Presbyterian, from a family without means or connections, he underwent a classic education at the University of Glasgow, completed with apprenticeships with William Cullen and Alexander Monro first in Scotland, and then in London, with William Smellie, James Douglas and James Wilkie, in anatomy, obstetrics and surgery, respectively. Despite initial disadvantages, he was highly successful as an anatomist, educator, surgeon, man-midwife, artist, gentleman and collector. He moved and had influences in the highest medical, cultural and social circles of his time, was named Physician Extraordinary to Queen Charlotte, and was a member of many scientific, medical and cultural societies in Great Britain and in France, such as the Royal Society, the Royal College of Physicians and the Societé Royale de Médicine of Paris. His museum was notable in its magnitude and its diversity, including anatomical preparations, coins, shells, plants, birds, insects, fossils, and minerals. He donated his great museum to the University of Glasgow. His figure has been relegated mainly due to the absence of heirs, individuals or institutional, that could have cared for, maintained, and increased his legacy as happened with his brother John.

El conocimiento anatómico en el Perú preincaico / The anatomical knowledge in the pre-Inca era in Peru

En el antiguo Perú, en la era preincaica, en la localidad de Sechín, sus habitantes dejaron grabados en piedras una serie de imágenes anatómicas, que tal vez constituyan los testimonios más antiguos de disecciones humanas realizadas en el mundo. (AU)

In Ancient Peru, in the pre-Inca era, in the town of Sechin, its habitants left engravings in stones a series of anatomical images, which may be the oldest testimonies of human dissections made in the world. (AU)

El retablo de Isenheim: religión, arte y medicina / The Isenheim altarpiece: religion, art and medicine

Northern Europe at the beginning of the 16th Century was in turmoil as a result of religious and political dissention, epidemics of plague, syphilis, ergotism, and famine, and the threat of the Ottoman Empire. In Alsace, a fulcrum between Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands, Grünewald painted his celebrated and complex altarpiece at Isenheim in a convent chapel of the Antonine religious order that kept a hospital for the care of patients suffering from ergotism, plague, syphilis and other illnesses. The ten paintings of this altarpiece convey a series of religious, medical and political meanings, with the scenes of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection being thought to play an integral part of the curative process. This was because patients could be soothed by comparing their suffering to that of Christ on the cross and could console themselves by the Resurrection. The portrait of Christ in the cross is astounding in its realism and naturalism. It represents, with great pathological veracity, a tortured body in agony, a break with previous traditional representations of this event. Impressive pathological detail is also given to a figure in the Temptation scene. The entire work is suffused with religious connotations provided by the composition, the forms and the richness and sophisticated use of colors. Although Grünewald's paintings are few and the facts of his personal life sparse, it is known he married a Jewish woman, supported the peasant revolts, and was probably a Lutheran in a Catholic area. While Grünewald is considered the epitome of a German artist, the universal projections of his art have influenced physicians and the artistic productions of many painters, writers, musicians and sculptors throughout the world.