Overview
- At the European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul, Dr Michael Yafi argued that learning how artists portrayed body size across eras can help clinicians be less judgmental toward patients with obesity.
- He highlighted periods when larger bodies signaled status or fertility, pointing to the prehistoric Venus of Willendorf and research noting many Ottoman emperors were depicted with abdominal girth.
- He offered speculative readings of famous works, suggesting the Mona Lisa’s subject could reflect pregnancy-related weight gain and that portraits of Bach and Handel align with diabetes-related vision loss.
- He predicted that the gaunt “GLP-1 face” seen after rapid weight loss on drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro will appear in new artworks as use of these medicines grows.
- The work was presented as a conference abstract rather than a peer-reviewed paper, and the aim is to use art to build empathy and reduce weight stigma in medical care.