Thyroid swellings in the art of the Italian Renaissance

Background: Thyroid swellings in the art of the Italian Renaissance are sporadically reported in the medical literature.

Methods: Six hundred paintings and sculptures from the Italian Renaissance, randomly selected, were analyzed to determine the prevalence of personages with thyroid swellings and its meaning.

Results: The prevalence of personages with thyroid swellings in the art of Italian Renaissance is much higher than previously thought. This phenomenon was probably secondary to iodine deficiency. The presence of personages with thyroid swelling was related to specific meanings the artists wanted to show in their works.

Conclusions: Even if the function and the role of the thyroid were discovered only after thyroidectomy was started to be performed, at the beginning of the 19th century, artists of the Italian Renaissance had the intuition that thyroid swellings were related to specific psychological conditions. Artistic intuition and sensibility often comes before scientific demonstration, and it should be a guide for science development.