What do we really know about the diseases that afflicted Michelangelo or Leonardo? What was the actual cause of Caravaggio’s death? Did Raphael really die from too much sex? Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects gave us the first and not entirely accurate picture of how many of the great and not-so-great artists of the Italian Renaissance lived their lives—but only a bit about their deaths. What light can our modern understanding of medicine shed on these recondite topics? Join physiologist and medical historian, Dr. Jeremy Wasser, for a fascinating trip through the medical records of some of the artistic giants of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque, as he builds a bridge from the medical understanding of Vasari’s time to that of today.

Jeremy Wasser is an Associate Professor of Physiology at Texas A&M University. Dr. Wasser serves as the program leader for study abroad programs in Germany, focused on the history of medicine, providing future doctors and biomedical science researchers with a foundation in physiology and the medical humanities. Along with his scientific publications he has written and lectured on the culture of disease, the history of public health and health policy, the history of human experimentation, and the role of physiological education in contemplative practices. Additionally, his training in opera and theatre allow Dr. Wasser to create unique personas for lectures in the history of medicine and performances related to science and storytelling.