O002. Did Picasso and De Chirico really suffer from migraine auras?

Excerpt

Some authors have suggested that migraine aura may have represented an inspiration for unusual and recurrent features of paintings by Pablo Picasso and Giorgio De Chirico. A migraine hypothesis was formulated for Picasso's art, based on aura-like patterns, such as illusory vertical splitting and shifts of the eyes, even if the authors explicitly stated that they did not find any supportive information in Picasso's biographies [1]. As for De Chirico, the jagged effect of water, the spiky silhouette of a knight, a black sun motif intruding into an interior scene were interpreted to be evoked by aura. Other descriptions included sparkling, dazzling, dancing or flickering lights, fire rings, stars, and dancing lines [2]. We looked for further evidence to examine in depth this hypothesis. …