PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Abastado, Philippe AU - Chemla, Denis TI - Rembrandt’s doctors AID - 10.1136/jmh.2005.000241 DP - 2007 Jun 01 TA - Medical Humanities PG - 35--37 VI - 33 IP - 1 4099 - http://mh.bmj.com/content/33/1/35.short 4100 - http://mh.bmj.com/content/33/1/35.full SO - J Med Humanit2007 Jun 01; 33 AB - Medical doctors appear in numerous Rembrandt paintings and reciprocally, physicians interested in art have used their diagnostic skills in dissecting the painter’s work, especially his lifetime of self-portraits. The possible existence of skin and eye diseases, hypothyroidism and Horton’s disease, and psychiatric and psychological traits has been a matter of everlasting debate, as summarised in the present paper. Most of all, the ageing process reveals itself over time in the continuity of the self-portraits. In the quest for signs of illness, the slightest bump in the canvas can be considered a symptom, and the examination of Rembrandt’s self-portraits is a difficult exercise. However, the resulting published papers have given rise to a great number of diagnostic hypotheses.