Una lectura médica de las imágenes medievales del nacimiento

Abstract

This paper deals with gynecological information present in medieval images. While the History of Medicine has carefully studied written sources concerning pregnant women, the Art History has not paid enough attention to obstetrical information of medieval images, especially when those ones had been made with doctrinal aims. For that reason, I will analyze three sorts of Christian pictures, Virgin Mary’s, Jesus Christ’s, and John’s the Baptist’s Birth, trying to get from them gynecological data about topics such as newborn children’s wrapping, anatomical position of pregnant women during labour, and midwives’ assistance. Briefly, I would like to study the mutual influence of Christian thought and Scientist knowledge, and how that interrelation was depicted in works of art.