Routledge Representing Infirmity: Diseased Bodies in Renaissance Italy

This scholarly volume provides the first comprehensive analysis of how infirm bodies were depicted in Italian art and literature from approximately 1400 to 1650. Drawing on original research and innovative methodologies, the book examines the vital yet previously unexplored connection between visual representations and medical, religious, and literary texts of the period. Rather than applying modern disease categories, the study interprets infirmity through the Galenic humoral framework that dominated Renaissance thinking. Each chapter investigates which specific infirmities appeared in visual culture, the contexts in which they were shown, the reasons for their representation, and their chronological significance. Through detailed analysis of works by master artists including Caravaggio, Leonardo, and Michelangelo, this study illuminates how Renaissance creators visualised the human body in states of illness and disability, revealing profound cultural attitudes toward health, suffering, and the physical form during this transformative historical period.