TY - JOUR T1 - Rembrandt’s doctors JF - Medical Humanities JO - J Med Humanit SP - 35 LP - 37 DO - 10.1136/jmh.2005.000241 VL - 33 IS - 1 AU - Philippe Abastado AU - Denis Chemla Y1 - 2007/06/01 UR - http://mh.bmj.com/content/33/1/35.abstract N2 - 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. ER -