A female figure in Michelangelo’s masterpiece The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel may suggest the presence of breast cancer. This theory was put forward by scholars in a study published in the journal The Breast, attracting international media attention. The woman, wrapped in a blue veil, is holding her ribs under her breast, which has a deformation on the right that could be indicative of the disease, as well as the area around her right armpit.

The fresco of the Last Judgement is part of the Stories of Genesis, painted by the artist between 1508 and 1512 on the vault of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Raffaella Bianucci, a bioanthropologist at the University of Paris Saclay, focused her analysis on the figure’s right breast. Here, a recessed nipple and an irregular areola with clear signs of erosion can be seen. In addition, a swelling is visible under the armpit that could correspond to swollen lymph nodes. These signs could suggest the presence of breast cancer.

According to Bianucci, this discovery could suggest that cancer was already known in 1508, the year in which Michelangelo created the fresco, and that there were scientific innovations in the identification of diseases in that historical period. It is known that Michelangelo had studied human anatomy in depth and had performed dissections on cadavers before dedicating himself to the creation of the Stories of Genesis. If this interpretation were correct, it could be hypothesized that the artist wanted to symbolize the inevitability of death through the representation of this disease.

This analysis offers a new perspective on Michelangelo’s work and on how artists of the past could reflect on questions of health and mortality in their creations. The female figure thus becomes not only an artistic subject but also a possible vehicle for deeper reflections on the human condition and its frailties.