Vol. 129 No. 1 (2025)
Original Article

Visual Thinking Strategies for medico-anatomical teaching and rheumatological diagnostics: the case of M. L. Greville Cooksey’s Maria Virgo (1915)

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  • Donatella Lippi,
  • Daniele Cammelli,
  • Elisa Zucchini,
  • Linda Vignozzi,
  • Francesco M. Galassi,
  • Immacolata Belviso,
  • Ferdinando Paternostro,
  • Elena Varotto
Donatella Lippi
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Daniele Cammelli
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Elisa Zucchini
Department of History, Archaeology, Geography, Fine and Performing Art, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Linda Vignozzi
Department of Biomedical, Experimental and Clinical Sciences “Mario Serio”, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Francesco M. Galassi
Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland
Immacolata Belviso
Department of Psychology and Health Sciences, Telematic University Pegaso
Ferdinando Paternostro
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Elena Varotto
School of Biomedicine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/ijae-16176

Published 2025-07-10

Keywords

  • Visual Thinking Strategies,
  • fictopathography,
  • medical didactics,
  • rheumatology,
  • art and medicine,
  • anatomy
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

Lippi, D., Cammelli, D., Zucchini, E., Vignozzi, L., Galassi, F. M., Belviso, I., … Varotto, E. (2025). Visual Thinking Strategies for medico-anatomical teaching and rheumatological diagnostics: the case of M. L. Greville Cooksey’s Maria Virgo (1915). Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embryology, 129(1), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.36253/ijae-16176

Copyright (c) 2025 Donatella Lippi, Daniele Cammelli, Elisa Zucchini, Linda Vignozzi, Francesco M. Galassi, Immacolata Belviso, Ferdinando Paternostro, Elena Varotto

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The paper exemplifies the use of Visual Thinking Strategies method in the biomedical area as implemented in the degree course in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Florence through the analysis of the Pre-Raphaelite painting Maria Virgo by May Louise Greville Cooksey. The team includes an art historian, a medical historian, two palaeopathologists, a rheumatologist, an endocrinologist and two anatomist, who have adopted their disciplines’ diagnostic methodologies. The nodose hands of the Virgin Mary in the painting remind the art historian of Botticelli’s and Filippino Lippi’s Madonne, models for the Pre-Raphaelites, whereas the rheumatologist conjectures that she suffers from knuckle pads.

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References

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