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Who is Dürer's "Syphilitic Man"?
Perspect Biol Med. 2009 Winter; 52(1):48-60.PB

Abstract

Among Albrecht Dürer's first known woodcuts is one showing a syphilitic man. The Nuremberg artist's image is the earliest known depiction of an individual suffering from this illness. Syphilis was probably brought by Conquistadores from the New World to Naples in the later 1490s and was then transmitted throughout Western Europe by Northern mercenaries (Landsknechten) returning from Italy to their native Germany and Switzerland. The attire worn by Dürer's Syphilitic Man is exactly that of the Landsknecht. This makes the image important not only as a very early work by the artist and the earliest image of a syphilitic, but also as a depiction of the agent of the disease. The young Dürer had ample opportunity to study such mercenaries during his journeyman years in present-day Switzerland and Strasbourg, since most of them came from precisely the same impoverished territories.

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Publisher Full Text

Authors+Show Affiliations

Eisler CT
NewYork University Institute of Fine Arts, 1 East 78th Street, NewYork, NY 10075, USA. cte1@nyu.edu

MeSH

Famous PersonsHistory, 15th CenturyHistory, 16th CenturyHumansMedicine in the ArtsPaintingsPortraits as TopicSyphilis

Pub Type(s)

Biography
Historical Article
Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

19168944

Citation

Eisler, Colin T.. "Who Is Dürer's "Syphilitic Man"?" Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, vol. 52, no. 1, 2009, pp. 48-60.
Eisler CT. Who is Dürer's "Syphilitic Man"? Perspect Biol Med. 2009;52(1):48-60.
Eisler, C. T. (2009). Who is Dürer's "Syphilitic Man"? Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 52(1), 48-60. https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.0.0065
Eisler CT. Who Is Dürer's "Syphilitic Man". Perspect Biol Med. 2009;52(1):48-60. PubMed PMID: 19168944.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Who is Dürer's "Syphilitic Man"? A1 - Eisler,Colin T, PY - 2009/1/27/entrez PY - 2009/1/27/pubmed PY - 2009/4/2/medline SP - 48 EP - 60 JF - Perspectives in biology and medicine JO - Perspect Biol Med VL - 52 IS - 1 N2 - Among Albrecht Dürer's first known woodcuts is one showing a syphilitic man. The Nuremberg artist's image is the earliest known depiction of an individual suffering from this illness. Syphilis was probably brought by Conquistadores from the New World to Naples in the later 1490s and was then transmitted throughout Western Europe by Northern mercenaries (Landsknechten) returning from Italy to their native Germany and Switzerland. The attire worn by Dürer's Syphilitic Man is exactly that of the Landsknecht. This makes the image important not only as a very early work by the artist and the earliest image of a syphilitic, but also as a depiction of the agent of the disease. The young Dürer had ample opportunity to study such mercenaries during his journeyman years in present-day Switzerland and Strasbourg, since most of them came from precisely the same impoverished territories. SN - 0031-5982 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/19168944/Who_is_Dürer's_"Syphilitic_Man" L2 - http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/resolve_openurl.cgi?issn=0031-5982&volume=52&issue=1&spage=48&aulast=Eisler DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -