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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
World
Angus Thompson

Michelangelo’s iconic Sistine Chapel painting may depict woman with breast cancer

‘The Flood’ adorns the vault of the Sistine Chapel – now clues have been spotted of a woman helping signal the inevitability of death, experts have said - (Alamy)

Renaissance figure Michelangelo may have depicted a woman suffering from breast cancer in a famous fresco of a biblical flood on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, according to researchers.

The team of art-history and medical experts found that the Florentine sculptor and painter’s detailing of the woman’s right breast and area close to her right armpit was consistent with the disease.

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