Court dwarfs: an overview of European paintings from fifteenth to eighteenth century.
Since antique times, dwarfs have been commonly employed at court, mostly as servants, entertainers, or personal attendants upon noble women and noblemen. Their presence at European Renaissance courts was very common, as demonstrated by their presence alongside to their masters or mistress in several artworks of that period. Aim of our paper is to derive clinical information regarding the type of dwarfism affecting people living and acting at European courts from an overview of paintings dating fifteenth to the eighteenth century.
Division of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, San Giovanni Battista University Hospital, University of Turin, Corso Dogliotti, 14, 10126, Turin, Italy. federica.guaraldi@unito.it
Federica
F
Guaraldi
Nunzia
N
Prencipe
Davide
D
Gori
Stellina
S
di Giacomo
Ezio
E
Ghigo
Silvia
S
Grottoli
D004392:Dwarfism / Q000266:history*; D004739:England; D005602:France; D005858:Germany; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D007558:Italy; D008512:Medicine in the Arts; D009426:Netherlands; D010151:Paintings / Q000266:history*; D013030:Spain