1 3 J Endocrinol Invest DOI 10.1007/s40618-016-0548-z ENDOCRINOLOGY & ART A likely case of goiter in the Madonna col Bambino dormiente (1465/1470) by Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506) Mirko Traversari 1 · Roberta Ballestriero 2,3 · Francesco M. Galassi 4 Received: 19 August 2016 / Accepted: 6 September 2016 © Italian Society of Endocrinology (SIE) 2016 the Boston Museum of Fine Arts by one of Mantegna’s fol- lowers has also been identified as a representation of goiter, which highlights how the painter and his school have not The Gemälde Gallerie in Berlin exhibits the famous paint- ing Madonna col Bambino dormiente (Eng. Madonna with sleeping child, Fig. 1) painted around 1465/1470 by Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506). A common theme of the Italian Renaissance, the Madonna with child was often studied and represented by Mantegna throughout his life. In comparison with previous representations characterized by a stiff and awkward rendering of shapes, this is a more intimate and pri- vate interpretation of the divine duo with a softer pictorial and more harmonious compositional quality. The particular attention paid to representing reality reveals that the Virgin Mary shows an enlarged neck, with a protruding ovoidal mass. Elsewhere identified lobulations being absent, the pic- torial evidence alone would not allow to formulate a clear- cut semeiological diagnosis of goiter and more differential diagnoses could be considered, e.g., lipoma, cyst, abscess, lymphadenopathy, carotid artery aneurism, etc. Nonetheless, the very suggestive anatomical position and the fact that sev- eral more examples by different artists of Renaissance [1, 2] have been identified as portrayed with the typical pathologi- cal morphology of a goitrous enlargement strongly point in that interpretative direction. Another Madonna with child in * Mirko Traversari mirko.traversari2@unibo.it 1 Laboratories of Physical Anthropology and Ancient DNA, Department of Cultural Heritage (DBC), University of Bologna, Via degli Ariani 1, 48121 Ravenna, Italy 2 University of the Arts, Central Saint Martins, Granary Building, 1 Granary Square, King’s Cross, London N1C 4AA, UK 3 The Gordon Museum of Pathology, Kings College London, Guy’s Campus, St. Thomas’ Street, London SE1 9RT, UK 4 Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland Fig. 1 Madonna col Bambino dormiente (1465/1470). Gemälde Gallerie, Berlin, Germany. Image in the pub- lic domain from Wikipedia: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Madonna_col_Bambino_dormiente#/media/File:Andrea_ Mantegna_108.jpg. Accessed 05/08/2016