Mona Lisa's High Cholesterol and Other Masterpieces Diagnosed

Professor Vito Franco studied 100 famous artworks for evidence of disease; he says Mona Lisa exhibits clear signs of  xanthelasma (a cholesterol deposit) in the hollow of her left eye and lipoma (a fatty tissue tumor) on her right hand.

FLORENCE — The Mona Lisa and the new McDonald's in the Louvre's underground mall may have more of a connection than meets the eye. Vito Franco, a professor of Pathological Anatomy at the University of Palermo, believes Leonardo da Vinci's smiling model exhibits telltale signs of high cholesterol. More specifically, the Italian medical expert says the famous lady shows symptoms of a cholesterol deposit in the hollow of her left eye (called xanthelasma) and a fatty tissue tumor on her right hand (known as lipoma).

Professor Franco says he spent about two years analyzing roughly 100 works of art for evidence of disease and illness. He studied masterpieces ranging from Egyptian sculpture to contemporary paintings, with his concentration mainly on Renaissance pieces like the Mona Lisa.

“I look at art with a different eye from an art expert, much as a mathematician listens to music in a different way from a music critic,” Franco told The Times. He presented his findings of afflictions in the various artworks at a recent medical conference in Florence.

 

Additional diagnoses: in Diego Velázquez's Las Meninas, the Spanish child Margarita likely suffered from both a thyroid condition known as goiter and the genetic disorder linked to premature puberty, McCune-Albright syndrome; the unusually long, thin fingers of the young nobleman in Sandro Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Man indicates that the subject suffered from Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder of the connective tissue; and the swollen knees of Michelangelo, as depicted in the foreground of Raphael's The School of Athens, were likely caused by kidney stones.

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Mona Lisa's High Cholesterol and Other Masterpieces Diagnosed

Top Ten Art Auction Sales of 2009

With only a couple of days remaining in 2009, writers everywhere are compiling all sorts of Top Rankings for the past year, spanning categories from music to movies to art.

This week, Bloomberg published a list of the Top 10 art auction sales for 2009. And although the economy took a turn for the worse this year, these million dollar sales give hope to an already struggling art market.

The Top 10 Art Auction Sales of 2009 (in descending order):

1) Raphael, "Head of a Muse" (1508-11), chalk drawing on paper.

Sold Dec. 8 at Christies, London - $47.6 million.

2) Henri Matisse, "Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose" (1911), oil painting on canvas.
Sold Feb. 23 at Christie's, Paris - $45.6 million.


3) Andy Warhol, "200 One Dollar Bills" (1962), silkscreen ink and pencil on canvas.
Sold Nov. 11 at Sotheby's, New York - $43.8 million.

4) Constantin Brancusi, "Madame L.R. (Portrait de Mme L.R.)" (1914-17), sculpture on wood.
Sold Feb. 23 at Christie's, Paris - $37.1 million.


5) Rembrandt van Rijn, "Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo" (1658), oil painting on canvas.
Sold Dec. 8 at Christie's, London - $32.9 million.


6) Eileen Gray, "Fauteuil aux Dragons" (1917-19), sculpted wood armchair upholstered in leather.
Sold Feb. 24 at Christie's, Paris - $28.1 million.

7) Piet Mondrian, "Composition avec bleu, rouge, jaune et noir" (1922), oil painting on canvas.
Sold Feb. 23 at Christie's, Paris - $27.4 million.

8) Wu Bin, "Eighteen Arhats" (1615), hand scroll in ink and color on paper.
Sold Nov. 24 at Poly International Auction Co., Beijing - $25 million.

9) Alberto Giacometti, "L'homme qui chavire" (1950), painted sculpture in bronze.
Sold Nov. 4 at Sotheby's, New York - $19.4 million.

10) Edgar Degas, "Petite danseuse de quatorze ans" (1881), sculpture in bronze.
Sold Feb. 3 at Sotheby's, London - $19.2 million.

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Top Ten Art Auction Sales of 2009

Two Old Masters Set Auction Records in London

LONDON — An auction Tuesday night in London earned the largest recorded total at a sale of its kind. Artists Raphael and Rembrandt were the stars of the Christie's Old Masters and 19th Century Sale, which fetched an impressive $112.4 million.

Raphael's drawing Head of a Muse sold for double its pre-sale estimate, earning a winning bid of $47.5 million. That figure established a record, making the work the most valuable drawing ever sold at auction and the second highest price ever paid for an Old Master painting or drawing. The 16th century work was done as a study for one of the artist's frescoes in the Vatican.

Rembrandt's painting Portrait of a Man, Half-Length, with his Arms Akimbo also fetched a record price for the artist and was the fifth highest price paid at auction for an Old Master painting or drawing, selling for $33.2 million. The 17th century piece was previously part of a private collection, and until Tuesday, had not been seen in public for forty years.

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[Images: Left - Raphael, "Head of a Muse" (1508-11). | Right - Rembrandt, "Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo" (1658).]

Two Old Masters Set Auction Records in London

The Pope Receives a Creative Audience at the Sistine Chapel

VATICAN CITY — The magnificent Renaissance frescoes of the great Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, and Botticelli provided the backdrop for a pontifical address to art world heavyweights on Saturday. Pope Benedict received roughly 250 creatives, including painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, poets and film directors, at the Sistine Chapel (not your typical conference room/banquet hall), where he spoke to the crowd about bridging the gap between the art world and religion.

Though the Vatican invited roughly 500 artistic leaders of varying religious, political and stylistic allegiances, only about half accepted the invitation. Opera star Andrea Bocelli, film director F. Murray Abraham and architect Zaha Hadid (whose acclaimed MAXXI museum of contemporary art opened in Rome last weekend) were among those in the audience.

The Pope began his address by explaining, "At this gathering I wish to express and renew the Church’s friendship with the world of art." He said that in the present time of social and economic hardship, when all hope seems to be lost, it is beauty which can restore the human spirit.

"[...]the experience of beauty does not remove us from reality, on the contrary, it leads to a direct encounter with the daily reality of our lives, liberating it from darkness, transfiguring it, making it radiant and beautiful," Pope Benedict said. "Beauty, whether that of the natural universe or that expressed in art, precisely because it opens up and broadens the horizons of human awareness, pointing us beyond ourselves, bringing us face to face with the abyss of Infinity, can become a path towards the transcendent, towards the ultimate Mystery, towards God."

Pope Benedict ended by appealing to his audience, whom he called "the custodians of beauty," asking them to use their talent "to speak to the heart of humanity, to touch individual and collective sensibilities, to call forth dreams and hopes, to broaden the horizons of knowledge and of human engagement." He told them to be grateful for their gifts, and said, "Through your art, you yourselves are to be heralds and witnesses of hope for humanity!"

The Vatican is expected to have its own pavilion at the next Venice Biennale art exhibition in 2011, perhaps a sign that the establishment is finally willing to embrace the world of modern art.

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Read More - Full Text of the Pope’s Address

[Photo: Pope Benedict XVI greets more than 250 leading figures from the world of arts in the Sistine Chapel on Saturday. Courtesy Osservatore Romano/Associated Press]

The Pope Receives a Creative Audience at the Sistine Chapel