The Hand in Art: An Old Painting Showing the Osteoarthritis of Old Age

From the Renaissance until well into the 19th century, artists and their public expected works of art to be, on the whole, realistic in appearance, although a certain amount of distortion of the human figure was almost always present as a result of artists' individual styles and levels of ability. Nevertheless, the norm, especially in portraits, was that the figure should at least appear to be realistically depicted. When they were shown in a portrait, accurate representation of the sitter's hands was particularly important because they were considered to be as expressive of the subject's character as was the face. 'Portrait of an Old Man' (Fig. 1), dated circ 1600, by Jacopo Palma il Giovane (the younger) (1548-1628), is now in the National Gallery of Victoria.