Did sculpting give artists a health advantage before antibiotics?

doi:10.1136/bmj.39423.603391.DB

BMJ 2007;335:1233 (15 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.39423.603391.DB

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Did sculpting give artists a health advantage before antibiotics?

Roger Dobson

¹ Abergavenny

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A study has shown that great sculptors live longer than greatpainters, and the reason may lie in the greater level of exertionneeded for the first job compared with the second.

Old master sculptors lived on average three years longer thanold master painters, and the physical work involved may havehelped boost the ability of their immune systems to fight offinfections in the age before antibiotics, researchers say (Ageand Ageing 2007 Dec 3 doi: 10.1093/ageing/afm172).

In the study, the authors created a database of European oldmaster painters and sculptors, excluding those who had livedin the 20th century. Although Michelangelo was also a painter,he is classed as a sculptor because, say the authors, that ishow he saw himself. The final analysis was of 262 great paintersand 144 great sculptors. All but six in the database were men.

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