Alopecia in art history: The many ways women’s hair loss has been interpreted

What changing artistic depictions of women’s alopecia tells us about hair loss today.

At least 40% of women experience hair loss or alopecia over their lifetimes. This could be alopecia areata (patchy hair loss), traction alopecia (strained hair loss) or another form. The different ways that women’s hair loss has been depicted across art history demonstrates the many different ways it has been interpreted over the years. In 16th and 17th century Britain, for example, women’s alopecia was sometimes interpreted as retribution for sins, including adultery. Some historical art, however, depicts a more neutral, or even positive, attitude towards women’s alopecia. In religious or mythical art, it was sometimes idealized as divine. “Madonna and Child” (pictured top), painted in the 15th century by Italian Renaissance artist Carlo Crivelli, shows Jesus and Mary embracing in a gold, stylized setting. The pair sit behind a religious altar surrounded by ripe fruit and adorned with halos. Madonna has a high forehead and her blonde hair recedes, particularly on her right temple. This association between alopecia and divinity is echoed in a work by another Renaissance Italian artist, Cosmè Tura. His ”Madonna and Mary Magdalene” (circa 1490) depicts both mother and child with prominent foreheads. A glazed terracotta piece created by the Italian sculptor Andrea della Robbia in 1475 features Prudence, a human embodiment of Christian morality, as a balding two-headed person.