Arthritis in the hands of saints shown in 15th century Venetian altarpieces by Bartolomeo Vivarini

Abstract

Bartolomeo Vivarini (1432–1499) was the most prolific member of a prominent 15th-century Venetian family of artists who specialised in religious art, particularly altarpieces. Unlike their Florentine counterparts, Venetian artists of this period were typically more concerned with decorative effects than with accuracy of description, so their paintings often lacked detailed anatomical information. Bartolomeo, however, began the move toward anatomical realism in the Vivarini family. Two pictures of saints from his altarpieces are presented here to illustrate his depiction of arthritic hand deformities. The hands of Saint Louis of Toulouse (painted c. 1465-7), a young man who died in his 20s, show signs of inflammatory arthritis, while the effects of degenerative osteoarthritis can be seen in the hands of Saint Mark (painted c. 1470), who is portrayed as a man in late middle age. These observations extend the findings of previous studies of Florentine altarpieces from the same period, as well as more general studies of deformed extremities in Italian, Flemish and French Renaissance paintings. They also support the broader proposition that when 15th-century Venetian painters began to embrace anatomical realism they were capable of providing sufficient detail to enable pathological deformities in their figures to be identified.