1. Michelangelo: Art, anatomy, and the kidney
Garabed Eknoyan 
Kidney International 
Volume 57, Issue 3, Pages (March 2000)
DOI: /j x
Copyright © 2000 International Society of Nephrology Terms and Conditions

2. Figure 1
Panel from Sistine Ceiling showing God Separating Earth from Waters (1511) by Michelangelo (a). Computer-assisted removal of the figures showing kidney shaped mantle of the Creator (b). Color highlighted version of (b) to demonstrate the vessels and ureter of the kidney (c). Reproduction of a medical illustration of the normal kidney (d) in which the ureter is shown in its normal course downward from the kidney. In the figure by Michelangelo, it is likely that the ureter is shown extended below the kidney and protruding at the left upper corner beyond the outline of the mantle (a). That would be the position of the empty ureter if the kidney were hurled at the viewer or traversing at high speed through space.
Reproduced with permission from the Vatican Museum.
Kidney International  , DOI: ( /j x)
Copyright © 2000 International Society of Nephrology Terms and Conditions

3. Figure 2
(Top) The Last Judgment (1536–1541) by Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, Vatican (a). (Bottom) Copy by Marcello Venusti (1549) in Museo di Capodimonte, Naples (b). The highlighted boxed segments are discussed in the text.
Kidney International  , DOI: ( /j x)
Copyright © 2000 International Society of Nephrology Terms and Conditions

4. Figure 3
Figure of the flayed muscle man holding his skin and flaying knife by Gaspar Becerra in Historia de la Composicion del Cuerpo Humano (1556) by Juan Valverde de Amusco.
Kidney International  , DOI: ( /j x)
Copyright © 2000 International Society of Nephrology Terms and Conditions

5. Figure 4
Detail from the panel of the Separation of Earth and Waters showing one of the naked figures (ignudi) sitting atop the Persian Sibyl (1511; left figure). Computer-assisted removal of the ignudo highlighting the kidney-shaped pillows. The two smaller inserts show the removed ignudo (bottom) and its study in chalk (top) in the Royal Collection, Windsor.
Kidney International  , DOI: ( /j x)
Copyright © 2000 International Society of Nephrology Terms and Conditions