Álvaro Carmona's book explores medical conditions in art history through 10 paintings

Scientific communicator Álvaro Carmona examines how artists have documented illnesses in their work in his book 'Le seré sincero, no pinta bien.' The publication analyzes ten paintings that reveal various medical conditions, including Paul Klee's 'Tod und Feuer' (1940), which reflects his scleroderma through symbolic flames and facial distortions. Carmona identifies possible breast cancer in Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio's 16th-century painting at Rome's Palazzo Colonna. Diego Velázquez's 1644 portrait 'El bufón el Primo' depicts Sebastián de Morra with achondroplasia, while Francisco de Goya's 1788 'San Francisco de Borja y el moribundo impenitente' shows epileptic convulsions rather than demonic possession. Hieronymus Bosch's 1500 'Extracción de la piedra de la locura' critiques medieval mental health treatments, and Juan Carreño de Miranda's circa 1680 portrait of Carlos II reveals hydrocephalus. Pieter Brueghel the Elder's 1562 'El triunfo de la muerte' illustrates plague consequences, and Thomas C. Lea III's 1944 'That Two-Thousand Yard Stare' captures acute stress reaction. The book also discusses Frida Kahlo's chronic pain, Theodor Rombouts' dental extraction scene, and conditions affecting Michelangelo, Renoir, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet, and Turner. Published by Editorial Crítica, the 288-page volume costs 22.90 euros.