Trisomy 21 in visual art

In 1866, J. Langdon Down published a paper on "an ethnic classification of idiots" and noted their facial resemblance with individuals of the Mongolian people. In 1959, J. Lejeune, M. Gautier, and R. Turpin demonstrated that the children with Down syndrome had an extra copy of chromosome 21. There is now a debate within the medical literature on the age of trisomy 21 as a disease affecting mankind. Since it was not described before 1866, some authors questioned whether this disease is an old or new condition in humans. Three methods of investigation are useful for demonstrating that trisomy 21 has been present in humans for a long time: the figuration of this condition in historical paintings, figurines, and pottery; its presence in old skeletal remains; and the origin of human chromosome 21 during primate phylogeny. Figurines strongly suggestive of trisomy 21 have been found in the Greco-Roman world, in many Central and South American pre-Columbian cultures, and in Khmer temples. In Europe, during the Renaissance, Italian and Flemish artists represented trisomy 21 in paintings of religious inspiration. Studies on the origin and pathology of chromosome 21 have shown that the ancestral human chromosome 21 arose 30-50 million years ago and that trisomy 21 has existed since time immemorial.