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J. Endocrinol. Invest. 25: 198, 2002

Fernando Botero was born in Medellín, Columbiain 1932 and is one of South America’s most fa-mous living artists. Botero has been acclaimed forhis characterization of rounded figures and for hismastery of voluminous forms. Botero’s major artis-tic inspirations include Baroque Spanish art, theParis non-conformists and the art of early Renais-sance Italy, but some scholars also cite influencesfrom Pre-Columbian sources of art. While Botero’sfigures are seen as satirical by some, they actual-ly represent a social criticism of the bourgeoisie.On this note, special attention could be paid tothe ironic presentation of obesity within the so-cio-economic context of over-consumption in de-veloped countries. The above painting, entitled “Bather”, shows alarge woman preparing herself to bathe in a natu-ral water source. This work was completed in 1990and is housed at the Galleria Marlboro in Madrid,Spain. It is an especially impressive presentationof the rounded form, and urges the Endocrino-logist to return to the roots of historical endo-crinology. As we turn back to our Italian forefathersof Endocrinology such as Viola, Pende and Lune-dei, we may use their basal descriptions of mor-phology to place a diagnosis not without a bit ofimagination. Using the old nosographic classifica-tion, Botero’s subjects can be described of gynoidand maternal obesity. For all of them, the patho-genesis could be of neuroendocrine origin withsome resemblance to co-existant hypogonadism,or hypercorticosurrenalism, or hypothyroidism, allaccording to the distribution of the adipose tissue.There is no great difference between the old andthe new; indeed, the morphological descriptionof obesity today is similar to that of the past.Basically, the same neuroendocrine factors are in-volved in the pathogenesis, as suggested by stud-ies in the field of genetics and hormonal bio-chemistry.

Piera de Pedrini Misani, MD Paolo Pozzilli, MDUniversity of Rome “La Sapienza” University Campus Bio-Medico Rome

Italy Italy

“Bather”

Fernando Botero - Medellín 1932

ENDOCRINOLOGY AND ART

(Picture taken from “Botero”, a book of Botero’s artwork published by Electa Einaudi Mondadori, 1999. Printed with permission).