The Effects of Diseases, Drugs, and Chemicals on the Creativity and Productivity of Famous Sculptors, Classic Painters, Classic Music Composers, and Authors

Written by Paul L. Wolf MD

Ed. Note: Paul L. Wolf, MD from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, in a recently published article (Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine: Vol. 129, No. 11, pp. 1457-1464. November 2005) takes us on a journey of retrograde analysis of medical conditions and self-induced medicinal ingestion that afflicted some of the most talented artists ever (Benvenuto Cellini, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Ivar Arosenius, Edvard Munch, van Gogh, and Berlioz). His conclusion: these talents could have been diagnosed and treated by today's methods, but the intervention may have dimmed or extinguished the "spark".

Below is the analysis that Dr. Wolf uses to illustrate his historical perspective.

From the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, San Diego, and the Autopsy and Hematology, Clinical Chemistry Laboratories, VA Medical Center, San Diego, Calif

Context.- Many myths, theories, and speculations exist as to the exact etiology of the diseases, drugs, and chemicals that affected the creativity and productivity of famous sculptors, classic painters, classic music composers, and authors.

Objective.- To emphasize the importance of a modern clinical chemistry laboratory and hematology coagulation laboratory in interpreting the basis for the creativity and productivity of various artists.

Design.- This investigation analyzed the lives of famous artists, including classical sculptor Benvenuto Cellini; classical sculptor and painter Michelangelo Buonarroti; classic painters Ivar Arosenius, Edvard Munch, and Vincent Van Gogh; classic music composer Louis Hector Berlioz; and English essayist Thomas De Quincey. The analysis includes their illnesses, their famous artistic works, and the modern clinical chemistry, toxicology, and hematology coagulation tests that would have been important in the diagnosis and treatment of their diseases.

Conclusions.- The associations between illness and art may be close and many because of both the actual physical limitations of the artists and their mental adaptation to disease. Although they were ill, many continued to be productive. If modern clinical chemistry, toxicology, and hematology coagulation laboratories had existed during the lifetimes of these various well-known individuals, clinical laboratories might have unraveled the mysteries of their afflictions. The illnesses these people endured probably could have been ascertained and perhaps treated. Diseases, drugs, and chemicals may have influenced their creativity and productivity.

The phrase "the inhumanity of medicine" has been used by Sir David Weatherall, Oxford's Regius Professor of Medicine, for a kind of sickness in modern technological medicine.¹ In 1919, one of his predecessors, Sir William Osler, had the remedy for that complaint. Osler suggested that the "arts" secrete materials that do for society what the thyroid does for human beings. The arts, including literature, music, painting, and sculpture, are the hormones that enhance an increased human approach to the medical profession.^2,3

Illness has affected the artistic achievement of musical composers, classical painters, creative authors, and sculptors. Illness affected their physical and mental status as well. Their inspiration may have been shaped by their human condition. The associations between illness and art may be close and many because of both the actual physical limitations of the artists and their mental adaptation to disease. Although they were ill, many continued to be productive. The afflictions these people endured probably could have been ascertained and perhaps treated with modern medical techniques.

This article analyzes the effects of drugs, chemicals, and diseases on the creativity and productivity of the famous sculptors Benvenuto Cellini and Michelangelo Buonarroti; classic painters Ivar Arosenius, Edvard Munch, Vincent van Gogh, and Michelangelo; classic music composer Louis Hector Berlioz; and author Thomas De Quincey.

BENVENUTO CELLINI

A Homicidal Attempt on Cellini Utilizing Sublimate (Mercury)

Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) was one of the world's greatest sculptors and a connoisseur of sensuous living. He produced a gigantic masterpiece Perseus With the Head of Medusa. The casting of it was an artistic feat. Cellini was a Renaissance man in every sense. He was a goldsmith, sculptor, musician, and a swaggering figure that saw himself as Michelangelo's artistic equal.

Cellini contracted syphilis at the age of 29 years.⁴ When he was in the secondary stage of syphilis with a vesicular rash, he was advised to have mercury therapy, but refused because he had heard of the undesirable effects of mercury.⁵ He received lotion therapy, and leeches were also applied. However, the "syphilis pox" skin rash relapsed. Cellini subsequently became ill with malaria, which was common in Rome at the time. The malaria caused him to become extremely febrile and led to improvement of his symptoms following attenuation of the spirochetes by the high fever. The Romans and the Greeks believed that malaria was due to "bad air"; thus, it was called mal (bad) aria (air). They were not aware that it was caused by a parasite. The fever of malaria obviously had a transient, minimal effect on the clinical course of Cellini's syphilis. In 1539, Roy Diaz De Isla observed the minimal therapeutic value of malaria on syphilis.⁶ Four hundred years later, in 1927, the Nobel Foundation awarded a Nobel Prize to Julius Wagner Jauregg for malaria therapy of syphilis, which was ineffective, as demonstrated in Cellini's case in 1529.

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