I
n 1981 the Journal of the American
Medical Association 8 published an article
entitled “Rubens and the Antiquity of
Rheumatoid Arthritis.” 9 There was dispute
over whether rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was
a modern or an ancient disease. Curiously,
the authors, all medical doctors, noticed
peculiarities in some of the hands of Rubens’
subjects in his paintings, which suggested
to them that either the artist or a regular
collaborator had RA. From his own copious
correspondence, Rubens mentioned that he
suffered from some form of gout, which
increased in severity during the last decades
of his life. This was before the diagnosis of
RA had been established. The authors claimed
to see swelling of finger joints and wrists that
resembled increasingly advanced RA, though
I wouldn’t know.
In 2005 another article by the same lead
author appeared in the journal Rheumatology,
“Hypothesis: Rubens — one of the first
victims of an epidemic of rheumatoid arthritis
that started in the 16th-17th century?” 10 The
author focuses again on hands, especially
the right hand of the artist’s second wife,
Hélène Fourment, posing for his painting The
Three Graces. The hand shows a surprising
deformity: severe distension of the finger
joints characteristic of advanced rheumatoid
arthritis. There is no doubt that Rubens knew
his anatomy and could draw the whole body
from his imagination, or he would never have
been able to pull off those lion and tiger hunts
with horses and figures in positions no model
could hold. Could his much younger wife
have developed RA at an early age?
A very recent study in an Iranian medical
journal persuasively links RA to heavy metals
exposure among individuals in Punjab, Pa-
kistan. 11 This echos a speculation from 1988
in the British medical journal, The Lancet. 12
The authors considered four famous painters
afflicted with rheumatic disorders: Peter Paul
Rubens, Auguste Renoir, Raoul Dufy, and
Paul Klee. Renoir is well known to have been
so afflicted with arthritis in his later years that
his brushes were tied to his hands.
Direct links to heavy metals are tenuous. Renoir died at age 78. Monet, who
used heavy metal pigments in five of the six mentioned in the opening quotation,
outlived him by eight years. The environmental impact of pigment technology
in artists’ paints differs widely between the pre-modern and fully industrialized
ages. The old alchemists had “oil of vitriol” (sulfuric acid), but it wasn’t avail-
able for megatons of toxic waste. The conundrum might be phrased,
“What price non-toxic?”
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
The Three Graces
1630-1635
Oak panel
87 x 71”
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Detail with arthritic hand
Endnotes
1
. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ban-on-cadmium-pigments-could-change-art-forever-113493
2
. https://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/a8b3796a-ff48-461d-468e-0cff61321683
3
. Cobalt Blue pigment in artists’ paints, to the author’s knowledge, has never been targeted as an environmental hazard.
4 . https://www.liquitex.com/us/knowledge/need-to-know/faqs/?topic=sustainability under the question, “Why don’t you
list the pigments in your cadmium-free colors on the label?”
5
. Paraphrased from Wm. Krumbhaar. Coating and Ink Resins. Reinhold; 1947
6
. For more information see http://metalpedia.asianmetal.com/metal/titanium/titaniumdioxide.shtml
7
. Arie Wallert, ed. Still Lifes: Techniques and Style. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
8 . JAMA, as it is called, is well known for putting artworks on the cover of every issue.
9
. Thierry Appelboom, et al. JAMA, Feb 6, 1981 – Vol 245, No. 5
10
. T. Appelboom. Rheumatology, 2005; 44: 681-683.
11
. Shazia Irfan, et al. “Comparative Evaluation of Heavy Metals in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Healthy Control in Pakistani
Population.” Iran J Public Health, Vol. 46, No.5, May 2017, pp.626-633. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5442275
12
. Lisbet Milling Pedersen and Hendrik Permin. “Rheumatic Disease, Heavy Metal Pigments, and the Great Masters.” The Lancet. June 4 1988,
pp. 1267-1269.
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