LAUSR

Pietro Novelli was an Italian baroque painter, active mainly in Palermo. Trained by his father, he became renowned by his contemporaries as the Raphael of Sicily [1]. Pietro received several influences from van Dyck during his visit to Sicily and from de Ribera working in Naples. He was mainly commissioned works and paintings having religious themes for private villas of the Sicilian nobilty and for churches and altarpieces. One of his main masterworks adorns the wall of the Museo Diocesano in Palermo (Fig. 1). The painting shows a religious scene. Mary, holding Jesus in her arms, is seated on the rocks of the Mount Carmel surrounded by the Saints and Angels. Below, we can distinguish Saints Simon Stock, Angelus of Jerusalem, Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi and Teresa of Avila. Moreover, Saint Albert Carmelite is kneeling in the foreground. A closed look to the neck of the Virgin reveals an abnormal profile of the neck with swelling that is suggestive of thyroid goiter. The iodine deficiency producing goiter was endemic in the hills and valleys around Palermo [2, 3]. It seems reasonable to suppose that the painter may have been aware of the peculiar abnormal physiognomic characteristics given by an enlarged thyroid and may have used an affected model for the Virgin.