No matter whether you’re a fan of art or whether you’re a stranger to this world, there’s a high chance that you’re familiar with the names of Rembrandt and Leonardo Da Vinci. These two artists have changed history with their work and their train of thought and philosophy over the years, but there is one thing that has made some experts question their lives. From their self-portraits, it seems as though these two artists may have suffered from an eye condition. However, one expert has now come up with a new idea to thwart that notion.
The Artist’s Eye
As more and more people have looked upon the self-portraits of these two artists, many of them came to the conclusion that they may have had something wrong with one of their eyes. If you look closely, their portraits all offer skewed eyes that seem a little off, and this led many experts to believe that they had a literal artist’s eye. This is a real eye disorder that’s also called exotropia, and it occurs where one eye looks inward as normal, but the other eye turns outward. This makes their eyes look as though they are very different.
Another Option
However, it seems as though this might not be the real reason why their eyes are skewed in their self-portraits. An ophthalmologist at Johns Hopkins University, David Guyton, suggests that the two artists didn’t have exotropia, but instead just had a more dominant eye – something which every single person on this planet has. Those who have a more dominant eye often allow this eye to see what it thinks, and this is especially true the closer you get to the thing that you’re focusing on. So, if Rembrandt and Da Vinci were focusing on their eyes in a mirror while painting their portrait, they may have just seen themselves differently.
What do you think? Could they have really had exotropia?