Painting is earliest example of portrayal of Down's syndrome
BMJ 2003; 326 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7381.126/b (Published 18 January 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;326:126
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The number of the painting is 936 of 2290 not 946
Took me ages to find it with the wrong provenance
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Excuse me, Mr. Hebenstreit, but the correct URL of the site who have the full description of the picture is:
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/view1.asp?dep=11&item=1982%2E60%2E22
And the URL of the site to have access to the picture enlarged is:
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/view1zoom.asp?dep=11&full=1&mark=1&...
The URL adress you wrote was very close to the real one. Thank you to help me find the correct URL Address
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According to Andy Merriman's book "A Minor Adjustment", about his
daughter Sarah, who has Down's Syndrome, there is a painting by Andrea
Mantegna (1431-1506) in the Uffizi in Florence called Madonna and Child
where the child has Down's Syndrome. Also, the angels surrounding the
Madonna della Humilita painted in about 1437 by the Carmelite friar
Filippo have certain characteristics of Down's Syndrome.
He also refers to the Olmecs, a tribe of Indians who lived in the
Gulf of Mexico from about 1500BC to AD300. Brian Stratford, in a book
called New Approaches to Down's Syndrome says that carvings, figurines and
sculptures seem to represent adults with Down's Syndrome, and that wall
reliefs seem to suggest that the presence of children with Down's Syndrome
was the result of mating between women of the tribe and the jaguar, the
sacred totem of the Olmecs.
I am sorry not to have copies of the pictures to attach here, but I
would refer you to the above mentioned book.
I am no expert in genetics, but I cannot see there should be any
reason why Down's syndrome should not have been around for a long time.
Catherine Bianco
not a professional, but mother of Ellie, 4, who has Down's Syndrome.
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As authors of the original referenced article, we are gratified at
the attention our paper has generated through the article by Dobson. Some
points raised by the previous rapid responses are actually addressed in
the paper itself, published in the February 1 issue of the American
Journal of Medical Genetics (2003; 116: 399-405, found at 80-
www3.interscience.wiley.com), and to which we refer interested readers
with access to this journal.
In response to the mention of other
individuals in the painting who might also depict Down syndrome, we offer
the following: we chose not to mention the cherub figure as a possibility
because the figure was too small and our doubt too great; however, the
shepherd figure was discussed in the paper as uncertain due to its
depiction of apparent hypertelorism, a finding not typical of Down
syndrome.
Finally, we would clarify that, although the second author is
flattered at being described as a psychiatrist (and has a faculty
appointment in Psychiatry), in fact Dr. Reid is a clinical geneticist.
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One would expect Trisomy 21 to have existed in the earliest humans.
Categorisation by societies may have taken much longer. Inclusion of the
subject in the painting may represent artistic choice/available models
rather than insights into contemporary society. We can only conclude that
this may be the first recognisable portrayal of Down's Syndrome.
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I am one of the authors of the paper. The painting in question is the
one you reference, and can be found at that URL. The American Journal of
Medical Genetics has posted the paper, with the original and magnified
views of the painting, on its web site among Forthcoming Articles.
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The painting IS in the Metropolitan of Art - The Collection: European
Paintings, number 946 of 2279 paintings. Zoom is available. However, I
see three possible individual's with Down's: angel to Mary's left,
shepherd standing center, and a dark haired cherubim directly above Mary.
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Building on the short description provided by Dobson I would assume
that the picture concerned is the one accessible under the following URL:
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/view1.asp?dep=11&full=1&item=1982%2....
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Collection
European Paintings
No.946 of 2279
The Adoration of the Christ Child
Follower of Jan Joest of Kalkar (Netherlandish, active about 1515)
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Dear Sir:
As your article suggests with Down syndrome, I question whether people
weren't happier about their medical conditions in the past, while society
misunderstood them, or ignored its "true" prognosis. I derived some
consolation from the fact that counterfactually some banal problems were
considered deadly dangerous and contagious (i.e. ergotism), but,...are we
doctors again who held the wrong hypotheses.
o! tempora, o! mores
Carlos Loeda MD
Alicante, Spain
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A minor correction
I find this topic intriguing and have enjoyed reading your paper.
However, as a mother of a child with Trisomy 21, I feel I should point out
an error. The name of the syndrome is "Down Syndrome" not "Down's
Syndrome". The syndrome doesn't belong to Down's as the latter implies.
Thank you.
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