Published in:
01-12-2020 | Cover Editorial
Neuroendoscopy and the art of painting: reflections from the Dutch Golden Age
Published in: Child's Nervous System | Issue 12/2020
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The existence of a visual relation between the paintings of Johannes Vermeer of Delft (1632–1675) and endoscopic views of the intracranial cavity was explored and analyzed in a previous publication that I co-authored [1]. The rationale for conducting such an analysis stemmed from the observation that the interior views in Vermeer’s paintings evoked an intense impression of similarity to the endoscopic views of the human intracranial cavity (Fig. 1, upper right, upper left).
Fig. 1
The sense of similarity between Vermeer’s paintings and endoscopic views of the human intracranial cavity (upper panel). Note the similarity of the woman’s lower forearm in this detail from Vermeer’s The Milkmaid (left) to the cranial nerve in the endoscopic view (right), and the convergence of both forearms into the milk vessel in a visually similar fashion to both cranial nerves converging into the jugular foramen in the endoscopic view. The optical realism in Vermeer’s painting (lower panel) is exemplified by comparing the detail from Vermeer’s The Little Street (left) to a contemporary building photographed by the author (right). (Photo credit—upper panel: modified from Azab W, Prevedello D, Carrau R (2014), Surgical Neurology International [1], Copyright: © 2014 Azab WA. Upper left: Detail from Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid. c. 1660, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Lower left: Detail from Johannes Vermeer, The Little Street. c. 1658, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
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