Disability Futures

Some of the greatest Old Master artists, through the centuries, portrayed disability. In three articles, Parts One, Two and Three, Charles Josefson explores twelve of these portrayals. In Part One he considers the Luttrell Psalter, Duccio, Mantegna and Brueghel the Elder.

Galleries, auction houses, and some art historians speak of the Old Masters. But who qualifies as an Old Master? Typically, the term Old Master refers to European painters working during the period 1300-1830. Certainly, we all know an Old Master when we see one: Van Eyck, Leonardo, Titian, Vermeer or Rubens. In three articles I shall explore how a selection of twelve Old Master artists depicted disability, and how these depictions reflected changing societal attitudes to disability.