It has been suggested that the great Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978), who developed the unique style of ‘metaphysical art’, suffered from migraine and used some of his morbid manifestations as a source of inspiration for his paintings. Yet, whereas many of the symptoms that de Chirico described are rare in migraine, they are frequently encountered in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Here we rediscuss de Chirico’s symptoms critically and suggest that, if his symptoms were of neurological origin, they rather relate to temporal lobe epilepsy than migraine.

Keywords:
Epilepsy, Migraine, Neurology, Art, Temporal lobe
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© 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel
2003
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